Byzigenous Buddhapalian

A milestone slips by

2012-01-25T18:14:00.002-07:00

I knew it was coming up but was inattentive when it happened. This is post number 4002 on this blog. Whew.

Thanks to my visitors. You have been such a support to me over the years.

--the BB

Writing again

2012-01-20T22:58:00.003-07:00

If you see my Facebook posts you already know I have resumed work on The Lion Throne, the second tale in the Chronicles. I am currently working on two scenes where the wives and children respond to husbands and fathers out pursuing their claims to the throne. Stars, I pity them!

And yes, I love writing. It's been too long.

I will continue to cook but I hope this signals a shift toward better balance in my life. Writing is one of the most introverted things I do, though I love to read aloud or recount the tales to willing audiences.

--the BB

Happy Birthday, Little Sister

2012-01-19T21:20:00.003-07:00

I called my Little Sister to wish her a happy birthday today. She wondered where her little girl photo on the blog was. The pressure is on!

My Little Sister Ivajeane with her namesake, Grandma Iva.

Happy Birthday, Sis! I hope your day was a lot more fun than whatever made your brows knit while posing for this photo. Love you.

--the BB

Getting better

2012-01-19T06:56:00.003-07:00

Thanks to everyone for all the love, prayers, thoughts, meditations, and good wishes. Today I see the infectious disease specialist to assess progress and plans looking ahead. I have been going into the doctor's office every morning for my IV antibiotic and after about five days the progress became quite marked. The swelling, redness, tenderness of my leg all reduced dramatically. When I wake up each morning the right leg (infected) looks as slender and toned as the left leg (healthy). The lower leg muscles do not hurt. Actually, the remaining tenderness is in the lymph system in the upper leg, working hard to process all the nastiness. I believe the fire dragon in my leg is mortally wounded but we plan to beat it down under my feet.

Not sure who the auxiliary saint for legs is but St George is good for dragons, I hear.

--the BB

Going home

2012-01-11T12:27:00.002-07:00

Sorry I left off with such a dire message. I have been in the hospital Since Monday night. Saw an infectious disease specialist today and he is springing me. I will get IV antibiotics in his office each morning and should be able to return to work tomorrow morning (with my leg elevated).

Thanks for all the prayers.

Sick bear

2012-01-09T11:00:00.002-07:00

Well, those who know me well may say, of course he's a very sick bear but that's another story.

Cellulitis in my lower right leg cropped up again suddenly Friday morning. Got on Avelox after work but it spread a bit between Saturday morning and Sunday evening (not since) and I had a low fever this morning, so the doc wants me to go to the ER. That is where I will be headed shortly. Bill will take me. Basically this is in case I need IV antibiotics. Not worried but prayer is always appreciated.

--the BB

Kitchen adventures

2012-01-02T13:27:00.003-07:00

Although I cooked a couple of dishes for the Christmas dinner at Bill's, you may have read on Facebook about the dinner I canceled at the last minute because I fell and split my forehead open the morning of the dinner. But that was just over two weeks and twelve stitches ago and my head is healing nicely though I shall bear the mark of Voldemort forever, I fear. Still, I live!

I toyed with doing an early dinner on New Year's Eve and sending everyone home early but my energy was not that high and folks I talked to were leaving town or staying in. So the next meal will be this coming Saturday. With most of the guests from the one that was canceled.

The table is already set since I have today off and could do it, including ironing the tablecloth.

It will be the revival of an old tradition of mine, cooking spaghetti on the Saturday closest to Epiphany. I love making a rich sauce full of Italian sausage, ground beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomatoes, herbs, spices, and red wine. The pasta is a minor excuse for eating the sauce. Simmered for at least four hours. It is not done unless I can set a wooden spoon in it at an angle and the spoon stays there. Dang, I look forward to it.

This will be the farewell to Christmas season as I am leaving the tree up until then.

Now, as to the party that wasn't, I still had all that food that needed cooking so I made the pork stew with prunes, carrots, fennel, brandy, and cream the next day. And the devil's food cake with buttercream frosting. Just had one guest for that meal and ate leftovers all week. Here is the cake.

I doubt I will do that much work often (of course the cake and icing were from scratch, and there's a pound of butter in the icing) but it was a fun adventure. And I will make the cake again.

That's the news from Desert Farne. May you all have a 2012 rich with blessings. I wish health, employment (unless you can afford retirement), love, joy, and adventures to you all.

--the BB

Happy Birthday, Big Sister! - updated (new pic)

2011-12-17T21:29:00.005-07:00

The photo above is of my Big Sister Shirley. Today she celebrated her 80th birthday. Quite an accomplishment, I say.

This is the cake (from an iPhone photo by my niece Paula).

May the year ahead be filled with health and love.

Update:

Here is the birthday girl with her cake. Looking good for 80, if you ask me!

--the BB

Progress

2011-12-16T13:33:00.003-07:00

As I announced in the previous post, I have been getting things done. Yesterday I assembled three racks of shelves for the garage and got boxes, formerly scattered about, onto the shelves. I also tore up lots of boxes for recycling.

The new hot water heater arrived very late yesterday afternoon and was installed. I no longer live in fear of an imminent water-spewing disaster in the garage. I celebrated with a long hot bath last night (re-reading Tales of the City). I have also finished watching Season Three of The Big Bang Theory.

I have assembled a list of every ingredient, except water, for tomorrow's dinner. I marked what I have and what I do not. Sorted and printed out as a shopping list. About to head out and shop. (On a Friday afternoon near Christmas, am I crazy? Better than tomorrow morning.)

I am going to attempt my first devil's food cake (from scratch, natch). I will make it today so if it does not work out (this is high altitude baking after all) I can do something else tomorrow while the stew cooks in the slow cooker.

This is not an Italian meal, for the first time in months. I knew I would eventually go in other directions though I still plan to learn more about Italian cooking. The stew and the cake are new adventures for me. Appetizers, side dishes, and salad are old hat. A balance, though the meal is still meant to impress. lol.

Spanakopita

Pork stew with carrots, fennel, prunes, brandy, and cream
Rice
Haricots verts

Green salad

Devil's food cake

Just remembered I need to count my cake pans before I leave and add flowers to the shopping list.

I am rejoicing in the really big things I have accomplished this week and not dwelling on several other things that also need doing. Oh well.

Happy Beethoven's Birthday, everybody.

--the BB

2011-12-13T22:30:00.004-07:00

Aside from trying to depress us all with my previous post (looking back at our political journey may be edifying but it is also quite disheartening), I am trying to put this week to positive use.

Phone calls are slow at work so we are each taking one week off, in turn, to reduce staffing and still stay employed. This is my week to be furloughed. Not good for income but a gift from God in which I can catch up on some important things.

Today I took the car in for servicing. I knew I needed alignment of the wheels. Turns out I also needed two new front tires. But they were able to repair a puncture in the right rear tire that was giving me a slow leak that had to be dealt with. New wiper blades (I can see in the rain again!). All good stuff and right on schedule.

My '99 Accord came with a stereo that plays cassettes, nothing so modern as compact discs. Yesterday I bought a new stereo (and no, I did not get one for the really new stuff, deal with it) and it will be installed tomorrow morning. I will be able to listen to CDs while I drive AND can hook it up to my iPod. Bonus! Nearly all my collection of CDs is on my iPod.

I have run a few other errands. I replaced a broken kitchen strainer (the large one I use a lot), got a larger pastry bag, and have a new cake plate. Yes, I am dying to work on various cakes. Torn between a ricotta cheesecake and devils food for Saturday's dinner. Or something else. Cakes at 5200 feet elevation carry their own challenges.

Tomorrow I go shopping for a new water heater. Mine is, er, leaking. Not good. Let's get that fixed before it blows up on me.

Amid all this I continue my Big Bang Theory festival. I am in the third season now. So now I am addicted to that as well as Glee. I never got Friends, hated Seinfeld, but I love Big Bang Theory. Maybe it's the nerd humor that gets to me.

Yesterday I put up the tree. Today I decorated it.

Here is the Bear Angel that has topped my tree for decades. There are only two of them. Bill's sister has the other. Both hand-sewn by me.

And this is the tree. After this photo I hung the candy canes. Tomorrow I will gather all the kids beneath it and we can do a family portrait.

The kids will now also give me some peace and quiet.

Dang, I remembered another errand I could have run while I was in a specific neighborhood today. Oh well.

There is also the garage project. Last year Bill helped me organize the south wall. I just bought shelving to begin organizing the north wall. Bit by bit.

Happy St Lucy's Day, y'all.

--the BB

December reminiscence

2011-12-12T21:08:00.004-07:00

Seven years ago:

Boston Globe, March 8, 2004:

Iraq death spurs push for Humvee armor
In the days before his death, Private First Class John D. Hart called his father to tell him how unsafe he felt riding around Iraq in a Humvee that lacked bulletproof shielding or even metal doors.
It would be the last conversation Brian T. Hart would have with his 20-year-old son. On Oct. 18 near Kirkuk, Saddam Hussein loyalists ambushed his son's Army convoy, killing two. A hail of bullets felled the Bedford High School graduate while he fought from his Humvee.
"When he died, all his ammunition had been spent," the unit commander wrote in a letter to Hart's parents. "Your son gave everything he had for the safety of others. . . . As a commander, I struggle to find words that adequately capture the depth to which we honor Private First Class Hart."
For Brian Hart, a 44-year-old Bedford businessman, his only son's last words have come to haunt him, especially after learning that other families who lost loved ones in Humvee attacks had complained to the Pentagon about the lack of armor in vehicles.
In fact, an average sport utility vehicle found on US roads provides more protection than Hart's Humvee. "He would have been better off in a Toyota Highlander," the father said.

The GOP wants government off our backs, but they want to take over the job of teaching your kids about sex.
The GOP accuses the Democrats of not supporting our troops, yet shoves them into war with no protection from attacks.
The GOP claims to have a more diverse cabinet, but all the brains are exactly the same.
The GOP claims to have the morality franchise, yet corporate crime, murder, military deaths, voter fraud and abortions have increased dramatically under their rule.
The GOP claims to be the party to trust with homeland security, but they can't find anyone without a rap sheet to run that department.
The GOP claims to be fiscally conservative, but they've plowed through a huge surplus, ran it into a record deficit and they still want to borrow to pay for things like Social Security and a historically inept war.
The GOP claims to be compassionate, but their idea of a helping hand is to recruit more poor and elderly people into fighting that inept war.
Ready to take it to the streets yet? If not - when?

Permalink

MORE ON EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION....As Matt says, although tax and accounting issues are worth looking at, the real cause of runaway CEO compensation is widespread corruption in the corporate governance sphere. CEO salaries are essentially set by other CEOs and a small coterie of "compensation consultants," all of whom are motivated to set each other's salaries as high as possible so that in turn their own salaries will — someday — be set even higher. How many other employees have a sweet deal like that?

So how do they get away with it? First, by convincing everyone that this is a reasonable statement: "If we want a good CEO, we have to pay above the average." Simple arithmetic tells you that as long as everyone believes this, executive salaries will spiral upward endlessly.

Second, by making it hard to figure out how much their executives are paid in the first place. Stock options, perks, lucrative pension plans, and so forth are hard to value, and thus prevent overpaid CEOs from seeming overpaid until it's too late.

And third, by putting up roadblocks that make it difficult for dissident shareholders to complain about all this. In most companies, shares are so widely dispersed that very few people have a strong enough interest in this stuff to make a fuss. And when someone does manage to make a fuss, most corporations have rules that make it all but impossible to gather enough votes to make a difference.

Of course, I guess there are other possibilities. Price levels are controlled by supply and demand, and perhaps there's a shortage of talented CEOs these days. Or perhaps demand is higher. Or maybe companies are better run than they used to be.

If any of those things were true, it would mean rising CEO compensation is just evidence of the market at work. As it turns out, though, none of them are.

CEOs aren't paid astronomical salaries because of market forces. They're paid astronomical salaries because they can get away with it. That's all.

—Kevin Drum 6:14 PM Permalink

Six years ago:

SA to allow same-sex marriage
2 December 2005
South Africa is set to become the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to allow legal marriages between same-sex couples, following a Constitutional Court judgment on Thursday.
Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada allow same-sex marriages, as does the US state of Massachusetts.

Odom: Want stability in the Middle East? Get out of Iraq!

COMMENTARY | November 11, 2005

In his last piece for NiemanWatchdog.org, retired Gen. William Odom argued that all the terrible things the Bush administration says would happen if we pulled our troops out of Iraq are happening already. In a new postscript, Odom writes that the converse is true as well: Bush says he wants to bring democracy and stability to the greater Middle East -- but in fact the only way to achieve that goal is to get out of Iraq now.

Three years ago:

 Bloomberg:
The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Idiots
by kos
Mon Dec 15, 2008 at 01:20:05 PM PST

Seriously, I don't blame Bush for this. It was to be expected. I blame Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, who were supposed to protect the taxpayers from Bush's well-known efforts to pilfer our country.
Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the rules.
But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.
Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.

[Emphasis mine - BB]

Two years ago:

The People STILL Want the Public Option
by mcjoan
Thu Dec 10, 2009 at 02:12:03 PM PST
Not that public opinion on healthcare makes a damned bit of difference in D.C., but strong majorities still like the public option, according to two new polls, one from CBS/NYT [pdf], and the other from CNN.

Obama admin's sweetheart deal with drug companies holding up vote on cheaper drug import
by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 12/11/2009 09:12:00 AM
When you make deals with the devil, there's a price. Unfortunately, the price is paid by American consumers. We first wrote about the secret deal between the White House and the drug industry's lobbying group on August 6, 2009 when the New York Times exposed it. Now, we're seeing that deal's negative implications. Democrats are blocking a vote on an amendment to the health care bill on drug imports:

SCOTUS: Rummy Is Immune in Torture Suit
By: emptywheel Monday December 14, 2009 8:57 am

Today, SCOTUS declined to review an Appeals Court decision that ruled that Rummy and 10 other DOD officials are immune from suit for torture.
The Court’s denial of review of Rasul, et al., v. Myers, et al. (09-227) leaves intact a federal appeals court ruling that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ten military officers are legally immune to claims of torture and religious bias against inmates who were at Guantanamo but have since been released. The Obama Administration had urged the Court not to hear the case, saying that, whatever claims the four ex-detainees were now making, they had no legal basis for those challenges at the time they were at the U.S. military prison in Cuba — that is, between January 2002 and March 2004.
The D.C. Circuit Court had ruled in favor of immunity, and in doing so avoided a repeat of its earlier decision — vacated by the Supreme Court — that Guantanamo prisoners had no constitutional rights. The Justices had ordered reconsideration of that conclusion. Instead of ruling anew on the legal challenges, the Circuit Court opted for an immunity finding. The Supreme Court’s denial of review does not stand as a precedent on that point, or on the substance of the ex-prisoners’ challenges.
As Adam Serwer points out, SCOTUS’ refusal to review the immunity ruling once again deprives the American justice system of a definitive ruling that torture is wrong.

One year ago:

Americans care about creating jobs, not cutting spending
by Jed Lewison
Mon Dec 13, 2010 at 10:00:04 AM PST

Selzer & Company for Bloomberg, 12/4-7, 1,000 adults. MoE 3.1%.
Which of the following do you see as the most important issue facing the country right now? (Read list. Rotate.) Sorted.

50 Unemployment and jobs
25 The federal deficit and government spending
9 Health care
7 The war in Afghanistan
5 Immigration
1 Other (VOL) (specify:)
3 Not sure

Bachus lets the truth slip out

Meteor Blades

Mon Dec 13, 2010 at 10:40 AM PST

In a way it's kind of refreshing. Perhaps all the incoming GOP leadership will be as forthright about their goals for the 112th Congress. First, John Boehner rejects the word and reality of "compromise." And now, nine-term Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, who takes over as chair of the House Financial Services Committee next month, has a message for us, too:

Bachus, in an interview Wednesday night, said he brings a "main street" perspective to the committee, as opposed to Wall Street.

"In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks," he said.

The fox in the henhouse announces he's a fox. More of that, please.

Banning Big Wall Street Bonus Favored by 70% of Americans in National Poll

My little nostalgia strolls are rarely pleasant but the indicate the path we have followed to the present.

Let us learn from the past.

--the BB

Film the police

2011-12-12T20:57:00.002-07:00

The American People are rising up. The 0.1% will fight back with all the power at their disposal. Document the misdeeds of their minions.

[No, I'm not saying the police are our enemy. But many police departments are being used like corporate armies to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly, restricting the free press, and acting violently against those they are supposed to protect. We must document that and hold their badges accountable, and especially hold accountable the politicians at whose behest they act.]

--the BB

Sunday Dinner

2011-11-28T00:21:00.010-07:00

I've lost track of the number of Italian dinners so we'll just call this Sunday Dinner.

The bread, begun last night and baked late this morning. To the basic recipe I added julienned sundried tomatoes and some tomato paste. It is dusted with cornmeal. Here is the recipe.

The table in wheat and wine colors.

Yes, I have both a Kitchen Aid mixer and a hand-held mixer. Why do you ask?

I still prefer creaming butter and sugar with a wooden spoon. It feels more honest. This was the first step of the walnut-ricotta tart.

Ready to party. Yes, that young couple in the photo may look familiar.

Appetizers: the tomato bread and some Costco pugliese bread with two kinds of cheese and an artichoke spread. This photo was taken before a plate of salami was added.

Primi: Risotto milanese with shrimp.

Secondi: Chicken thighs alla cacciatora with wilted spring greens and apples, garnished with wedges of persimmon.

This is the walnut-ricotta tart, glazed with apricot jam and Grand Marnier, garnished with chocolate curls. There is orange zest in the cake itself.

Lovely company. So nice to see my friends tonight and feed them.

It took me a long while to unwind tonight so here I am posting this well after midnight. Sweet dreams, food lovers.

--the BB

Saturday Dinner

2011-10-30T11:43:00.004-06:00

I modified plans for yesterday's dinner so I would not be on my feet so much and did manage to have a couple of lie downs as well as sit with my foot propped up during the happy hour, enjoying the company and conversation of friends.

All hot food but the peas was cooked and in crock pots when the guests arrived; the work was basically all done.

I bought bread instead of baking it. Sergio brought some delicious cheeses. On a whim I added dates stuffed with walnuts and parmigiano reggiano. Since Sergio is from the Mendoza area, Bill brought a couple bottles of Malbec, of which I drank the lion's share. Well, I wasn't driving anywhere afterwards.

Next was a butternut squash soup, at Kathy's request, served with a fresh grating of nutmeg, a dollop of sour cream, and some pomegranate arils.

The main course was pollo con le cipolle, chicken with onions, from a recipe in Marcella's Italian Kitchen, pp 192f. The link was done searching through Mad Priest's Amazon link and if you are thinking of purchasing the book, do try to do it there. Support your friends.

I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs from Costco, initially held together with toothpicks until they had fricasseed enough to hold their shape. The onions sweat for at least an hour before they are browned. This is not a quick recipe, though I did all the other dishes while the onions were doing their slow cook.

It was served with beets (another shortcut; I did not roast and peel them - bought them boiled and peeled at Trader Joe's) - glazed with honey, balsamic vinegar, and thyme. Also peas, as Kathy wondered why I never served them. Actually, I love peas but usually do more labor-intensive vegetables for company.

Skipped the crostata di mermellata that I had planned. Another day. Simple spicy pumpkin bread from a mix served with cinnamon gelato from Italian Classics from Cook's Illustrated, p 437. It seemed appropriately autumnal.

I then debuted my new demitasse cups (thanks again, Randy and Troy) and risked making espresso. It worked. (I know, I should not be surprised if something works when one follows instructions, but I was anxious nonetheless.) I used Whole Foods Espresso Roast beans, ground in my new Krups coffee grinder and steamed through a Bialetti Moka stovetop espresso maker. Not too difficult a process.

Sergio had a second cup so I guess it's truly drinkable. I, of course, would never taste the stuff because of my intense dislike of coffee flavor. I also heated and frothed milk so Kathy could have a lattè. Chef and barista in one evening.

Everybody chipped in to do dishes afterward and I could go to bed and prop and ice my leg with nothing left to worry about.

I am so blessed to enjoy the company of friends.

--the BB

The pantry reorg project 2011

2011-10-28T20:55:00.007-06:00

I think this Día de los Muertos my Mother is hanging around. I have not done this much kitchen cleaning in forever. Hoping she can ignore the rest of the house for now and just be pleased with this much.

For about nine days I have been working on reorganizing my pantries and kitchen. Yes, pantries, as in the plural. In fact I have four: one in the kitchen, one in the hall toward the powder room, a new one in the hall closet, and a huge chunk of an upstairs closet where little-used items live. I am a pack rat and I know it. I also like equipment to cook whatever I feel like cooking. Enough with confessions.

Before and after photos were requested. There is no way I would share what any of this looked like before. Here are after photos taken this evening. Most of this was done prior to today as I am resting my infected leg.

This is the counter to the right of the stove with stirring and whisking and ladling and scraping devices. Also the many oils and vinegars, salt and pepper. An old man lives here because his pills for the week are all laid out where he won't forget to take them each morning.

This is the space to the left of the stove with the Kitchen Aid, new white dishes, more salt and pepper devices, butter dish, toaster, knives, and spoon rest.

This is "la cave" or most of it. All the reds and some of the whites, ranging from about $5 to $25 a bottle. I can't usually taste higher than that. Right now these are mostly Italian since that is the kind of cooking I am doing.

This is the kitchen pantry. I have detail photos but will spare you those. Since I am tall the top two shelves are at eye level, which is why lots of jars live on the right where I can see them easily. Pastas, grains, flours mostly inhabit the top left. Then come cooking and serving ware, then miscellaneous (including my workout supplements). Oil for frying and vinegar are hiding behind the pizza stone. The floor in this pantry was swept and mopped tonight and I am glowing with satisfaction.

Plastic containers for leftovers etc. have been matched with lids. About 40% are in another pantry (see below). 20% are in a box as take-home gifts for tomorrow's dinner guests, if they want them. The remaining 40%, largely unmatched, have been tossed in the trash. Finally.

This is the new pantry in the hall closet. It holds heavier equipment: the ice cream freezer, larger serving platters, a triple crock pot, all the cake and pie and tarte tins, overflow linens, food mill, pasta drying rack, and deep fryer.

Here is a view above the fridge that needs a new circulating fan. Nuts and dried fruits on top (and emergency healthcare directives, just in case you are at my house and I have a heart attack). A talavera dish and a print from a wine tasting trip years ago. Those who embiggen the photo may recognize some of the refrigerator magnets.

The "side pantry" on the way to the powder room: upper shelves. Here are wine carafes; dish towels and dish cloths and aprons tossed indecorously atop one another; coffee and tea devices, ramekins, and protein bars.

The lower shelves include the teas, rice steamer, cast iron devices, trivets, and storage containers. Below that is a huge bag of rice.

Saints watching over the kitchen include La Morenita (for everything), of course, San Pascual (for kitchens), Maria Magdalena (for witness and faithfulness), Genesius (for theatre folk), Antonio de Padua (because he was there and loves Jesus), Roque (for plague victims and people like me with infected legs), and Rafael (for healing). My home is dedicated to Guadalupe, Rafael, and Cuthbert. St Rock's feast is my Aunt Jesse's birthday, the Archangel Raphael's feast on older calendars was my Uncle Virgil's birthday, and Mary Magdalen's feast is Jim O'Donnell's birthday. Let us keep Jim in our prayers as he prepares to join the saints.

An overview of the stove side with decorative items above the cabinets.

And this is the table set for tomorrow's dinner. The napkins were starched a couple weeks ago. The tablecloth went from the dryer to the table without an iron. Yes, there is wicked candy corn in the little pumpkins. Grown ups gotta be bad too.

Welcome to my kitchen. No, you may not see any photos of the sink area right now. What, you want everything? Forget it.

I have done lots of rescheduling tomorrow's meal to minimize time on my feet. The soup is easy and so are the vegetables. I bought two loaves of rustic breads at Trader Joe's instead of baking them. I am not trying a new technique for dessert. Pumpkin bread (now cooling) was from a mix and I will make the cinnamon gelato tomorrow. No new techniques there, just different recipe. The chicken dish should not be hard and everything should be cooked and warming before guests arrive. Then I can sit down, with my leg up, and visit and enjoy my friends.

May you all have a safe and blessed Season of the Dead (who live in God).

--the BB

Le weekend

2011-10-24T19:30:00.002-06:00

OK, y'all know I've been on a major cooking and entertaining jag all summer and into the autumn. It is a revival of a long-time interest. As a boy I hung out in my mother's kitchen. During my college years I worked summers as a dishwasher and cook's helper. While in college I also occasionally served as a waiter when we had formal dinners. I used to bake a lot in my junior and senior years. Bill and I both love to cook and we enjoyed entertaining.

When I became single again I retreated from the world, big time. I needed to on many levels; it was more than depression. I needed to find myself again and moving to New Mexico was a way to go into the desert and be alone with myself (and my demons and angels). Each year I feel more myself. And I am cooking again, feeding people, trying to give people an experience similar to going to a nice restaurant.

Yes, I have indulged mightily in retail therapy, buying multiple sets of dishes, linens, new flatware, and some cooking equipment. This is also an investment in my future. I certainly hope to throw dinner parties when I retire somewhere down the road.

Saturday I assembled some shelving and put it in the hall closet, which has been grossly underused. Heavier cooking equipment, the silver chest, the cake and pie tins, spare glassware (extra red wines and champagne flutes) have all moved there. They are accessible but out of the way. This has freed space in the pantries (yes, I have two of them) and I am reorganizing those so things are where I can find them. Counters are more organized and usable. I have been cleaning a lot of stuff that had been hidden away.

I also baked some plain rustic bread and a lemon-ricotta cake, the latter for a potluck. I had the idea last week of making ginger-pear gelato, so I improvised and did that. Sunday I was looking at some red lentils that have languished in a corner of the kitchen for way too long. They joined some orzo, beef broth, a shallot, a carrot, some celery, and spices to become a stew for Sunday dinner. The photos and much of this commentary have already appeared on Facebook, but here they are for my blog friends.

Red lentil and orzo stew with a mountain of parmigiano reggiano and some home-made bread.

Lemon-ricotta cake and the ginger-pear gelato that I have named "Gelato Lindy" for my dear online friend now in China.

Once I get the pantry reorg done, I will set the table for next Saturday's meal. If I remember to take photos, you will see that after it happens.

--the BB

The coffee hater

2011-10-17T20:09:00.004-06:00

I make a very lousy Swede for at least two reasons: I hate the taste of coffee and I try to avoid eating fish. Don't even think of mentioning lutfisk. Shudder. The one Swedish thing about my cooking is the generous use of butter. Smor ock kärlek. Butter and love. That's the motto of Swedish cooking. That much I truly live up to.

Back to the coffee issue. I do not mind the smell of coffee brewing. That is homey. But I have never liked the taste of coffee in my mouth. Don't even consider bringing up mocha, thanks. If I detect coffee in my chocolate I want to spit it out, and usually do, though not in front of others.

When I went to France on my semester abroad in autumn of 1967 I had successfully navigated to the ripe age of 21 without ever tasting more than a sip of the nasty stuff. The day I arrived on the train in Montpellier my host family was all out and about. So Jean René, the son my age, arranged for a friend to meet me at the train. Said friend took me to the apartment where his family lived and his mother looked after me until my family could sweep me off to their home. The gracious lady offered me coffee. I said, as graciously as I could, that I do not drink coffee but appreciate the offer. She opined that this was because I had not had good French coffee and hers was marvelous and I must have some.

Well, I may have been a callow youth but I did not want to start an international incident on my second day in France. She brought me a (mercifully small) cup of coffee, "black as my heart" as my mother would say. Steeling myself, I took a sip. Fire hit my belly, and I don't mean passion. I thought I had just downed battery acid. And since I had not slept much on the train the night before nor eaten much, the caffeine hit my bloodstream almost instantly. My heart raced. And yes, I thought the flavor was incredibly vile. I made polite noises and probably took one or two more sips before begging off, saying it was most impressive but my body was not accustomed to it.

No, I don't ever intend to drink coffee again. Why do you ask? Yes, unless the tiramisu is beyond elegant I will spit it out. If it is truly exceptional I will eat one bite just to test the quality of all the other things that make tiramisu elegant. I believe it is a wonderful dessert, I just don't want any.

So, on Facebook I talked about my indulging in a high end ice cream maker Friday night. If I make this much gelato, why not? One tires of having to put the freezing canister of my prior ice cream device in the freezer for at least one night. One might want to make more than one flavor or greater quantities and need to keep on freezing after one batch. Well, now one can. It was a chunk of money. I said I felt I could justify this (having made gelato now five times in two months). But I could not justify the espresso machine for sale at Costco because I loathe coffee, don't even keep any in the house, and it was way too much money. Though it would be nice to be able to serve espresso at the end of a lovely Italian meal, just to round out the experience.

Allow me to compound this story with another aside. When I moved to Albuquerque and had the illusion I would entertain more than I actually did the first four years here, I bought one pound each of regular and decaf coffee and put same in my freezer. I do have a coffee grinder (two, actually, though one is for spices only). I have a coffee maker (two, actually, for "leaded" and decaf). I think it was three years later that I tossed out the two pounds of coffee. Probably had freezer burn at that point. I had made coffee once, perhaps. (I do have tea, mind you.)

Friend Randy, who keeps an eye on my Facebook posts, not only showed up with a couple bottles of wine on Saturday but he and his friend Troy also had a little host gift:

These lovely rose pattern demitasse cups and saucers for my espresso.

Knowing full well how I feel about coffee and the whole issue around it.

Bless their hearts. (And aren't the cups beautiful?)

It was not gratuitous teasing. Randy also pointed out that there are alternatives to expensive fancy schmancy espresso machines. (Oh, and tonight at Costco I noticed the espresso machine was actually about eight dollars cheaper than my new ice cream maker. That was a bit humbling.)

So I did some reading online about espresso and related topics and did a little shopping on the way home tonight.

I have a new coffee grinder. I can set it for an espresso grind without wondering if I have done it right.

And I have a stovetop espresso maker, the classic macchinetta from 1933.

I also have some Italian roast and espresso beans from Whole Foods (small quantities) and also a bag of the espresso roast Starbucks and medium roast decaf from Starbucks purchased at Costco. I need to learn how to use the new toys, of course, but I will learn.

I also know that my hand blender can whip up 150 degree milk, so I don't need no stinkin' steam device or 'spensive device à frapper.

So if you come to my house for an Italian meal, you will be able to enjoy a shot of espresso. Hell, I'll even throw some hooch in and you can have caffè corretto. A latte? We can do that too. What, you want mocha? I've got Starbucks cocoa powder. We'll do it.

This is your friendly barista, who still loathes coffee but wants y'all to have a good time (and drive home sober).

--the BB

The meal that was and the photos that weren't - updated

2011-10-16T11:49:00.006-06:00

Last night's meal was fun to do, a lot of work, and the company was great. Part of my cooking journey is to have dinner guests that I would like to get to know better, making new acquaintances and gaining new friends. This weekend everybody had prior commitments and it appeared we would be only three for this huge meal. My friend Randy pursued it a bit, asking if I knew K and D. Yes, I said, I just met them Thursday night. He had their phone number. I rechecked old messages, and by the time we were through it was a full table of six as originally planned. Yay! Thanks, Randy. Fun lively dinner companions.

In fact, I had such a good time (or was very busy pulling the main course together) that I forgot to take any photos past the soup course.

Here we have the antipasto.

One bread dough made into a large loaf and a smaller one with olives. The olive bread is in the center with the cheeses. The other is on the sides with bruschetta. Two kinds of olives, salted pistachios, toasted almonds. We began with blood orange soda in champagne flutes and pinot grigio/pinot gris.

Here is the table.

And here is the butternut squash soup, wickedly containing whole milk and heavy cream. The fresh bit of thyme from the yard was described as the fly in the soup. "Are we supposed to eat the fly?" was the question.

The next course was stracotto, an Italian pot roast that was browned then braising in the oven for four hours. It was cooked with onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms, a can of diced tomatoes with their juice, chicken broth, beef broth, red wine, and a sprig of fresh thyme. As the meat rested I cooked down the liquid with a sprig of fresh rosemary (also from the yard), furiously reducing it to about one third. Omigod, the sauce on the meat was incredible. Served with a ladle of soft polenta, sautéed haricots verts, and sautéed mushrooms.

Dessert was blueberry gelato. I was going to make a sorbetto but did not have enough blueberry puree so I threw cream in and called it gelato. Served with cantucci.

Every course had some learnings, which is another reason I do this. I want to be a better cook with a wider repertory of dishes and techniques plus consistent results.

Very few leftovers but damn, we ate well.

Planning the next one in a fortnight.

UPDATE:

Leftovers to the rescue. I had one large serving of leftovers from the main course and took it all to work today for lunch. I also took a dinner plate and my camera. So here is what the main course looked like (except on a harsh white formica background (sorry).

I must say, the stracotto recipe is a keeper. Dayumn, them's good eats! I must do this again.

And supper tonight is pure naughtiness, just dessert. Gelato di mirtilli con cantucci.

More came out of that dinner party. To be continued in the next post.

--the BB

We the People are the government of this nation

2011-10-12T21:01:00.000-06:00

I vicini

2011-10-09T15:12:00.011-06:00

When my new neighbors moved in I quickly learned that Wendy loves to cook. I "speak" Italian these days and she speaks "Southern." So I will probably learn to make hush puppies and deep fry. LOL. She had never made noodles. So I suggested we cook an Italian meal together for her family and that is what we did yesterday.

Here are the appetizers: squares of fried polenta (why, they're like grits! yep) with a spread of goat cheese and roasted garlic, topped with sliced of kalamata olive, roasted red pepper, and capers. Dry toasted almonds in the upper right.

This is the loaf of bread I worked so hard on. Wendy wanted to dip it in the sauce for the lasagne and just forget everybody else. I threatened her life if anything happened to this loaf before everyone had seen it.

I combined two recipes to make it. Started a "biga" the night before so it could ferment. Added it to the dough Saturday morning and added sundried tomatoes and some sundried tomato paste to the dough. Let it rise for three hours, shaped it and let it rise more than another hour. Baked in a very hot oven on a pizza stone, with steam.

Here is the table set with Primi: prosciutto and melon with the bread cut up for passing and dipping in olive oil and balsamic.

Wendy making egg noodles. This is so much easier since I bought the pasta attachment for the Kitchen Aid and no longer crank by hand.

Noodles cooking. Then they are shocked in ice water, patted dry, and put into the lasagne.

Here you can see some of the heavenly sauce. Wendy is right; we could have made a meal of the sauce and bread.

The hazelnut-chocolate cake. It had a little flour in it but mostly hazelnuts toasted and ground with bittersweet chocolate, sugar, and eggs. We did double desserts because it was a birthday dinner for their daughter.

And here is a served dessert: hazelnut-chocolate cake, dark chocolate gelato, whipped cream.

We worked our tails off but it was fun cooking together. Wendy got to check out making polenta and frying it, making noodles, a rich meat and tomato sauce, an Italian cake, and gelato. And I did some serious sleeping in today.

Next Saturday: another adventure with an Italian pot roast. Stay tuned.

--the BB

The next big meal

2011-10-04T20:39:00.002-06:00

Bill and I have a joke.
Q. What's is the most important meal of the day?
A. The next one.

You have to know my inner ursine nature to appreciate the humor fully. Once I've enjoyed a meal I tend to focus on the next one.

So new neighbor Wendy and I are planning to cook together this Saturday. Four courses, traditional Italian. Lasagne with noodles from scratch. Gelato. All kinds of good stuff. Then her family can walk across the street and join us in consuming it. It's their daughter's eighteenth birthday too, so a nice celebration.

Wendy is a total foodie, like me. This should be fun.

--the BB

The ongoing pizza festival of 2011

2011-10-03T23:40:00.003-06:00

Saturday night I made a couple more pizzas that a friend and I enjoyed with some old vine zinfandel.

Here is one of them before baking.

I went for a "Greek" theme: wilted spinach, sauteed mushrooms, grape tomatoes, feta cheese (along with the usual tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmigiano reggiano, a sprinkling of basil, and a drizzle of olive oil). Here are the remnants of the second pizza.

So far my favorites are (1) sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions and (2) pepperoni.

I came home from work tonight thinking I might bake bread. I had picked up some items at the store. Watered the garden. Sat in my rocking chair (actually it is a "glider") with some cookbooks, reading about ciabatta and other Italian breads. I fell asleep in the chair for a bit of a nap and decided I did not have the energy for bread tonight. I did, however cook some chicken and herb tortellini (from the store) and sent them swimming in vodka sauce that my neighbor had made. Yum.

I cannot stop thinking about food these days.

--the BB

Cena italiana #6

2011-09-19T21:06:00.008-06:00

Facebook friends have put up with me rhapsodizing about ironing and the joys of starched linens. Well, one set of new linens have been inaugurated tonight. Here is the table with places for six though it was just Bill and I for dinner.

Sauteed mushrooms and onions for pizza topping.

Who said pizza has to be perfectly round? These ain't.

First round: pizza with mushrooms and onions, green salad, and a lovely 1994 Fetzer reserve cabernet.

Round two: pizza with pepperoni.

Dang, this was fun, and easy. (Though on Facebook I confessed that when I did a dry run of a pizza just for myself on Saturday I discovered that I really should have had a pizza pan. Now I have two. There were no photos of Saturday's pizza. "Before" photos would have been lovely; "after" photos could have been blackmail.

The cooking adventure continues.

--the BB

Cene italiane # 4 e 5

2011-09-11T19:32:00.003-06:00

Sorry, folks, I don't have photos on the latest two, but I will report on food.

#4 was a last-minute birthday dinner for my friend Kathy. When I realized I would be out of town on her birthday, a party seemed necessary. I think we conferred on Wednesday and Friday night we dined. I got out the highly starched lemon yellow jacquard tablecloth and napkins, put red roses on the table and we partied. Well, I had a lot of wine that night, anyway. I made mushroom risotto, Bill brought fresh tomatoes from his yard for a stunning insalata caprese. I did a re-run on lemon chicken with wilted spinach. And incredible chocolate gelato.

#5 was last night. My friends Jon and Jack got married in DC earlier this year and my wedding present to them was some home cooking. Very upscale home cooking. LOL. Crostini spread with goat cheese and olive oil with green chiles and roasted garlic. Another mushroom risotto, this one including both dried wild mushrooms and fresh baby bella mushrooms (when did they stop calling them crimini?). This was very rich and wonderful. Sauteed chicken breasts in Marsala with wilted spring greens & minced orange pepper. Then lemon gelato that is light and tart and very lemony. Heaven.

This is the recipe I used last night. Killer result if you are a lover of tart lemon desserts, as I am. From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan, p 614.

(To be prepared and frozen at least two hours in advance.)

The peel [zest] of 4 lemons with none of the white pith beneath, about 1/2 tightly packed cup.

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Put 1-1/2 cups water, the lemon peel, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil. After 2 minutes, take off heat, remove the lemon peel, and pour the syrup into a bowl. Let it become completely cold.

2. Add the heavy cream, stirring to incorporate it evenly into the lemon syrup, then pour the mixture into your ice-cream maker and freeze it following the manufacturer's instructions. Store in the freezer in a tightly sealed container until you are ready to use it.

One thing to know about the lemon gelato recipe. It came out like a cross between soft-serve and very stiff whipped cream. So the texture is as light as the flavor is tart.

I am happy to report that the dishes from last night are all done and put away, including pots and pans, table silver, and wine glasses. Got two loads of shirts washed, dried, and hung up too. I feel at least somewhat ready for the work week.

--the BB

Cena italiana # 3

2011-08-21T07:31:00.007-06:00

The "experiments in Italian cooking" series continued yesterday.

La tavola

For Antipasto we had bruschetta. (I am not sure I have ever heard a server in any restaurant pronounce this correctly. The "sch" before "e" or "i" has the sound of "sk," just as it does in the English word "school." English-speakers will come close if they pronounce it as Bruce+Kate+Ta, with that "ta" as in "tata for now," accent on KATE. Of course, it you order it that way you may get an uncomprehending stare.

Anyway, last night's was done the old-fashioned way, brushing slices of bread with olive oil and sticking them briefly under the boiler. The tomatoes used were freshly picked from Bill's garden. And cheers to Bill, the sous-chef, who did lots of chopping and stirring for the meal.

Primi consisted of risotto al radicchio, a dish we had in Florence. It turned out really well and I am eager to have risotto more often. This is the fourth time I have made it and it is so very good, well worth the half hour one spends stirring it constantly. It's not fast food by any means but it certainly has moved into my personal category of comfort food.

For Secondi we had Marcella Hazan's drunken pork roast. The pork is "larded" with carrot sticks and cooks in wine for three hours. I added some baby bella mushrooms, sauteed zucchini, and a few slices of Bill's tomatoes.

I picked these grapes from my vine just before the meal. They are small but very sweet and we polished them off by the end of the meal.

The ricotta cake with lemon zest and juice in it. A thin cake with a lovely crumb. We had slices of it with mixed fresh berries.

There were many empty wine bottles in the trash at the end of the evening and I was very gratified to have pulled this off, especially given that I had a tooth ache all day. What a fun way to learn new recipes and techniques!

--the BB

Heart thread - 08/08/2011

2011-08-08T06:34:00.003-06:00

David@Montreal has some prayer requests for us.

dear Giants
in the generosity of your gracious hearts i'd ask prayers this morning for my cherished cousin Frank, his wife Carol and their family
Frank was re-admitted to hospital this past week-end: barely able to walk, yet incredibly he walked from the car into the emerg..
at first it was believed he had c-difficile again, but it is something new going on, along with MAC, a fungal infection in the lungs.
Carol called Mam late yesterday & it would appear that after a rather extraordinary life my dear cousin might be living through his very last days

prayers also for his latest grandchildren please, born less than a week ago: Katherine and Charlotte- both still in the icu: Charlotte with kidney and oxygen level issues.

prayers for the people of Syria who continue to be assaulted daily by the madman who claims leadership of their country. one for the international students who worked for me at the university is apparently still in the country with her parents.

prayers for President Obama (enough said)

and prayers please for the several Giants, each in their own way undergoing serious trails or discernment at this time ( you know who you are).

thank-you beloved Giants

David@Montreal

And let us remember David who faithfully carries so many in his heart.

--the BB

Cena italiana #2

2011-08-07T21:34:00.007-06:00

One of the current learnings is that I love to feed people. Now, this is not news. It is something that goes way back to my college years. I worked in kitchens in the summer, cooked now and again while in college, asked cooks lots of questions.

Bill and I entertained a lot and enjoyed doing it together. I loved ironing linens while he was working on sauces.

Doing it on one's own is another story. Since I work full time and I'm a lousy housekeeper, tidying up for company, planning, shopping, organizing, and cooking is much harder now. I really needed the several years I lived as a "hermit" but it is a huge shift to start entertaining. Nonetheless, I was determined this would be the year and I do want to learn the techniques of Italian cuisine.

So tonight was Italian Dinner Number Two. I only decided late Wednesday night to do it.

There is psychological significance to my entertaining with dishes and table linens that I did not use when I was part of a couple. Branching out on my own in a fresh way.

Here is the table with lots of black and gold.

Antipasto included goat cheese mixed with roasted garlic, green chiles, olive oil, salt and pepper. This could be spread on thin hard slices of French bread. Some guests also brought a corn salsa that was very tasty, full of fire and tang, and that was yummy on the bread also. There were kalamata olives, all washed down with pinot grigio and/or blood orange soda.

Primi, for which I have no photo, consisted of whole wheat fusilli (made in Italy) in a sauce of olive oil, butter, chile flakes, roasted red pepper, and parmigiano reggiano. I was going to make homemade egg noodles but, once again, punted. Today I went to church, shopped, and went to brunch instead of staying in the kitchen all day.

Segondi included veal scallopine in a Marsala and cream sauce, wilted spinach with roasted garlic, and grape tomatoes halved and sauteed in butter and balsamic vinegar. I got to practice the technique of pounding meat (clean up your minds, you naughty chipmunks!) as described by Marcella Hazan.

Dolci: egg custard gelato with fresh blueberries. The gelato was flavored with orange zest simmered in the milk and with Grand Marnier.

And that was Sunday Dinner. Hope you enjoyed it.

Oh, we toasted those who wished they were here with us. Y'all may not have been fed but you were not forgotten.

Ci vediamo!

--the BB

Una cena italiana

2011-07-23T22:57:00.002-06:00

After our visit to Italy in April I have been wanting to try my hand at more Italian cooking. Well, my first big feast was an Armenian meal, but tonight was Italian Meal #1.

La tavola

Antipasto consisted of squares of fried polenta topped with a mixture of goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and a bit of roasted red pepper. There were also three varieties of olives.

Primi consisted of a pasta with peas, ham, eggs, and parmigiano reggiano. I was going to make home-made egg noodles but with everything else going on I just used packaged farfalle. They were lovely nonetheless. I've made egg noodles and they fall in the category of something I know I can do, so it was not a problem to give that up on this round.

Segondi had thin-sliced chicken breasts briefly sauteed in butter with lemon juice and parsley, accompanied by sauteed haricots verts and grape tomatoes that were halved, sauteed in butter and some balsamic vinegar. The tomatoes were heavenly and the rest was pretty damn good.

I forgot to take a photo of the Insalata. Mixed spring greens with minced green onion, gorgonzola, oil, white balsamic, salt, and pepper.

And Dolci! Fresh raspberry gelato with Meyer Lemon cookies.

Every course was a success and I am very pleased. Kathy kept commenting that it was such a light meal and she expected something heavy. I told her Italian cooking takes many forms and this was intended to be a light summer meal, in spite of having five courses. I don't feel stuffed at all. Can y'all see the smile stretched from ear to ear.

God bless Kathy; the dishes are all done.

I look forward to more adventures in Italian cooking and will try to take you along with me (well, in photos at least).

--the BB

For Kirstin - upsdated with link

2011-06-30T22:58:00.004-06:00

The butterfly prepares to rise and all creation cries, "Glory!" and "Alleluia!"

Update from Andee is here.

I love you, KP.

--the BB

Day Four - Ara Pacis

2011-06-28T19:53:00.021-06:00

From the diary:

20 aprile 2011

This morning we took the Metro to Spagna then walked up to the Piazza del Populo, spent a few minutes in Sta Maria dei Miracoli. (Bill commented that it was the first place we've been that felt vaguely religious.)

Then we walked along the Tiber embankment to the Ara Pacis in its modern museum. I thought, first time of several today, of Betty Wiley.

Setting out on our little street toward the Piazza Barberini where we caught the Metro.

The Piazza del Populo lies just within the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls and was once the Porta Flaminia of ancient Rome from which the major road north headed toward Rimini. Travelers from northern lands had their first sight of Rome here. You may read more about it at the link.

An overview of the Piazza del Populo [Wikimedia Commons]

Obelisk of Rameses II in the center of the piazza and the "twin" churches of Sta Maria Montesanto (on the left, referring to Mount Carmel) and Sta Maria dei Miracoli (on the right). [Wikimedia Commons]

My shot of the piazza. Firemen were out taking collections for the Red Cross.

I wanted a closer shot of the fire fighters because, well, I like fire fighters (and their trucks, esp. the red ones).

Sta Maria dei Miracoli, named for miracles attributed to the image over the high altar. [Wikimedia Commons]

High Altar [Wikimedia Commons]

Above the Main Altar [Wikimedia Commons]

A fresco [Wikimedia Commons]

The Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of the Augustan Peace) was commissioned by the Senate to honor the triumphant return of Emperor Augustus from Hispania and Gaul. It was located on the Field of Mars and unearthed in the 20th century. It has walls of Parian marble and is housed in a controversial new museum next to the Mausoleum of Augustus. Mussolini had hoped to have a center celebrating Fascism. The Mausoleum appears incredibly overgrown but the altar is pretty cool.

Upper panels on the sides show processions of dignitaries and priests, including members of the imperial family.

Wonderful scroll work.

There are many interpretations of this goddess. Is she Peace, Tellus (Earth), Italia, Venus, or some other deity? In any case she holds twins and symbols of peace and prosperity.

If you have ever wondered where all those garlands and skulls come from in neoclassical buildings, Rome is your answer.

The standard sacrifice when Romans made peace treaties was a sow and here we have such a sacrifice. All manner of scholarly debate has taken place over the identity of the figures here. Sieveking said it was Aeneas making sacrifice to Juno on his arrival in Italy, basing this position on Vergil's descriptions. Richardson challenged this and later claimed it is Numa Pompilius.

Well, with the impression Vergil's Aeneid made on me in high school (and again, re-reading in graduate school), I inclined to Aeneas, a warm-up for later on Day Four (another post). Lines of the Aeneid kept running through my head. Betty Wiley was my Latin teacher at Fresno High School, hence the diary mention of her.

A plain yet lovely marble wall separating the altar from the stairs to the lower floor.

Yours truly in front of the sow sacrifice section.

More to come on Day Four, but at least I can relax having sifted through some more photos and put them up.

--the BB

Day Three - I Fori Imperiali

2011-06-13T21:20:00.036-06:00

Temple of Saturn - trust me, these columns are monumental. The entire scale of the fora (and yes, I insist on using the Latin plural of forum because it hurts my brain to type "forums") is meant to impress on the viewer the might of Rome and its rulers.

I return to the tour and it is midafternoon of Day Three. Following the restorative lunch on the terazzo of the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the conclusion of our museum tour we climbed the steep and sloping steps to the Chiesa di Santa Maria in Aracoeli. I wanted to take photos but it was forbidden to do so and, unlike most of the tourists with cameras inside, I behaved. The church dates from the sixth century and is situated on the Capitoline peak where a temple of Juno Moneta once stood. The following photos are taken from Wikimedia Commons.

Interior of Sta Maria in Aracoeli

Fresco of Madonna and Child by Pietro Cavallini

Central fresco by Pinturicchio
in the S. Bernardino Chapel (1486).

There are some nice bits in the church, as shown above, but I was not kind in journal comments:

... a horrid clash of too much with an excess of chandeliers - source of immigrant bad taste. Ugh. And the Santo Bambino of olive wood from near Gethsemane in Jerusalem allegedly carved by a Franciscan and painted by an angel is one of those fat ugly babies like so many Gothic & Renaissance Madonna and Child paintings where the baby is butt ugly.

My attitude is most uncharitable but there you have it. There is also a factor that truly puzzles me. Why are so many of the babies in late Gothic and Renaissance paintings lumpy and homely? Seriously. With all the painterly skills of the artists and some lovely women in the role of Mary, were there no pretty babies to be found? I really do wonder and would be interested in any theories.

For now I will pass over our visit to the Mamertine Prison in silence.

Looking down on the eight surviving columns of the Temple of Saturn and the three columns of the Temple of Vespasian. The Capitoline Hill (Campidoglio) is on the right.

Detail from the Arch of Septimius Severus

Massive inscribed stones

Remnants of the Basilica Aemilia. This vast area housed law courts.

Looking up toward the Palatine Hill where the
imperial palaces were located

There is a reason many of our formal typefaces are based on the carvings from imperial Rome. The letters are beautiful.

Would you care to guess the significance of this spot where folks leave flowers and other offerings to this day? You cannot see these unless you walk behind a wall to look.

It is the Altar of Caesar in the ruin of the Temple of Julius Caesar. This is the spot where his body was cremated after his assassination in 44 BCE.

Temple of Saturn and Arch of Septimius Severus

Arch of Septimius Severus

The lone Column of Phocas is the last monument placed in the Fora. It was dedicated on 1 August 608 to honor the Eastern Roman Emperor Phocas who had visited Rome and donated the Pantheon to the Pope.

The Arch of Septimius Severus (yet again) viewed from near its base.

The Temple of Saturn. I wish I could convey the scale. Wait, I believe I can. A photo taken from the Campidoglio overlooking the Fora:

The large columns to the right of center are the Temple of Saturn viewed from their side. Note the people in comparison to the monuments.

Some interesting floral scroll work on a stone fragment.

Remnants of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. There was a temple here from the fifth century BCE but these "modern" bits are from a rebuilding in AD 6.

Some wildflowers growing amid all the stone.

Foundations and retaining walls of palaces as you look from the Fora to the Palatine Hill.

Remnants (with lots of restoration) of the Temple of Vesta where the Vestal Virgins tended the sacred flame.

The Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius with Bill standing in front of it so you can grasp the immensity.

Chiesa di Santa Francesca Romana

The Arch of Titus (19th century reconstruction)

Domitian built the arch in AD 81 to honor the victories of his brother Titus and his father Vespasian. In this panel you can see a menorah being carried forth from looting the Temple in Jerusalem when the Jewish rebellion was put down.

The emperor in his chariot attended by the winged Nike, goddess of victory.

The Senate and the Roman People (SPQR) to the divine Titus son of the divine Vespasian, to Vespasian Augustus.

Looking down the Via Sacra toward the Colosseum

One of the cats of Rome viewing us with indifference

Arch of Constantine

Detail

The Colosseum

Our visit to the Fora was rushed as the sun was close to setting and the area was closing as we departed. We returned to our hotel and had snacks and a bottle of wine, quite sufficient at the end of a tiring day.

And that concludes Day Three.

--the BB

Nel giardino

2011-06-12T18:59:00.009-06:00

Today's gardening extravaganza includes comparisons with last year.

Right now I an writing through a haze of alcohol and aches. This weekend I went to the gym twice. I worked in the yard doing significant planting Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon. I have done lots of stretching and resistance training at home. My body is ready for some rest. It being the Fiftieth Day of Easter and the Great Feast of Pentecost, I have also broken out of my virtuous eating habits of late to consume some of the small See's milk chocolate Easter eggs still on the dining room table and to have a stiff drink after the yard work.

We also had a good time at San Gabriel this morning. There is a lovely new sign with an icon of San Gabriel on the outside of the building and it was blessed before the service began. We were a riot of red but that was nothing to the riot at the reading of the Gospel. It was in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Mandarin, Norwegian, Koine Greek, and Old English. I was reading in Italian and could hardly hear myself in that cacophony which is a pity. I would love to have heard it read in each language singly. But a great morning. I loaned my "red dress" to Mother Rhonda so she could flash in colors of fire. She also had on some outrageous red glasses given her years ago (so she says; I think she "borrowed" them from Dame Edna).

And now our pictorial yard report.

Here is the Methley plum with the new plantings of the last week that surround it now: four pink penstemon, periwinkle, pink butterfly gaura, English lavender, salvia, and white petunias.

Now, a retrospective look at the northwest corner from last year. There were peaches on the two trees on the right. The right near peach tree, the Red Haven, did not make it through the winter and has been replaced with a cottonwood. I hope to have shade as it grows to hugeness.

Although from a different angle (shot from the south end of the yard), this is a view of the north end this afternoon. Just a few months ago this was nothing but brown. Hooray for spring and summer! The cottonwood is mere slip of a thing visible just to the left of the series of three windows on the neighboring house.

Here are some John F. Kennedy roses.

This is a bit of a panorama of the yard from near the dining room door. You can see more hardscaping as I have added more retaining blocks to define the garden from the sandbox near the house.

I don't know their name but these have blossomed on a rosebush planted before the Italian trip that I thought might not make it.

America roses from a bush that made it through the winter.

I don't know the name of these either but they make my heart smile.

The Warsaw Nike clematis was planted two years ago. Prior to this year it never got more than about eight inches tall but it has survived two winters and finally grown up and blossomed.

Here is a view of the southwest corner from last May. The Lady Banks rose was flowering against the wall. This year it has only grown near the base with no flowers. The cherry tree in the left foreground did not survive and has been replaced with a nectarine. I have also planted an apricot and a Babcock peach this year. Many of the roses pictured here perished with our harsh winter.

Here is a view from the north end looking to the south end this afternoon.

There were more grapes on the vine last year but these are most promising.

Here is one of two areas planted yesterday.

One of the day lilies planted today.

And here is a shot of the north border planted rather intensively this afternoon.

And that is today's garden tour. I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoy planting and watching things grow.

May rain come.

Pray for the firefighters and those in danger of wildfires. I work for Smoky and I have friends out there.

--the BB

My First Love

2011-06-01T22:18:00.012-06:00

The Dying Gaul
Palazzo Nuovo, il Campidoglio, Rome

It is said one never forgets one's first love. This may, on several levels, be the story of mine.

For those new to this blog, or to my story, let me back up a bit.

When I was three my father taught me to read phonetically using alphabet blocks. Pretty impressive for someone who had only a high school education! By the time I was five I was reading comic books, including every last word of the advertisements, copyrights, and legal notices. I consumed words wherever I could find them.

It came as a shock to my parents when Miss Barbara Hawkins, my kindergarten teacher at Jefferson Elementary School, said that I could not read. The problem was that I could not see the blackboard and since age five I have worn very strong lenses.

Words seemed magical to me and still do. I marvel at human communication. Later on Mother took me regularly (every week, I think) to the Fresno County Library (Main Branch) downtown. It was only a one mile walk from our house. I would cart home five to seven books, devour them, and return for more. Adventure tales, mythology, science, mathematics, whatever caught my interest. I was, and remain, voracious for knowledge.

There were more than books to intrigue me. I could see Armenian-language newspapers and see the elders who had escaped the genocide reading them and speaking this exotic language. When the new Main Library was built (fairly early on in my reading career), there were the brilliant enameled panels of the Dewey Decimal mural. There was a small statue of a cowboy on a horse, probably a replica of a Remington, I'm not sure.

And there was a small plaster replica of the Dying Gaul.

This is a photo I took on my last visit to Fresno.

I knew better than to stare at a representation of a naked man, even though I had not yet heard of "the love that dare not speak its name." But this statue was a magnet. I found excuses to walk by it, never staring but stealing glances. He was beautiful. He was exciting. He was forbidden.

And so this statue formed and informed my idea of masculine power and pathos, of the desirable and forbidden. Though I had no idea about more than the merest mechanics of reproductive heterosexual congress and would not know what to do with a man, or another boy, if I had one, I knew I was queer, different. And that this could not be discussed with anyone.

I learned that he was not a Gaul from modern France but from Galatia, an earlier homeland of the Celts. I assumed his hair was a dirty blond. My weakness for young men (not twinks but formed men, the strong warrior type) with blond mustaches probably stems from my attraction to this statue. (My ex has teased me on many occasions about me and "blond Nazis.")

With this background you will understand why I have shared pretty much all of our experience of the Capitoline Museums except this one work that I have saved for last. The original is in the Palazzo Nuovo, the centerpiece of one of the first rooms we visited in that building.

United at last. Well, not exactly. I wish I had taken off the silly cap that shielded me from the hot Roman sun as I do not like this photo but here I am with the first "man" ever loved. The plaster replica, of course, lacks the grandeur and the details that make this such a famous work of art. Seeing it at last was a moving experience on many levels.

The museum guide says this is, perhaps, the most famous sculpture in the entire collection. The date is uncertain.

In this detail of his head you can see the mustache and disordered locks and the torc about his neck that identify him as a Celt. (The tribe that features prominently in the opening books of my fiction series are modeled on Teutonic tribes, with Scandinavian sounding names, and their chiefs are identified by a golden torc. An honorary one is granted to the epic hero of that tale. I believe I wept writing the scene where it is given to him. Care to speculate on the subconscious undertones there?)

He reclines on his shield. At his feet is his horn and by his right hand rest his sword and sword belt. The original does not have a fig leaf. Celtic warriors fought naked.

The composition is amazing from any and all angles. Here you can see the reverse S-curve of his torso and left leg. As he leans upon his right arm his left buttock is raised slightly off the ground, the final expression of energy before he collapses.

The sword seems more prominent from this angle than it did from the front, I believe because of the dramatic way the light falls upon it. The wrinkles on the sole of his right foot convey verisimilitude.

The fatal wound is quite evident on his right side, a sharp thrust into his chest. The sculptor captures a warrior's final moments.

The drops of blood are reminiscent of Hispanic depictions of Christ crucified with the blood dramatically evident. I had not remembered them from the plaster replica and was on the verge of tears as I noticed them.

For all the erotic energy this statue has had for me since boyhood, there is much more. I think it is simply one of the most amazing compositions of the human form ever created. It is also eloquent in capturing a dramatic moment without excessive sentiment.

Now that I am much older, I experienced new emotions. A profound desire to simply hold him welled up within me. He represents the tragedy of young life lost. He appears to die alone on the battlefield. I do not want him to be alone, abandoned. I cannot prevent his death or even delay it but I want him to be held as he dies. I want that for all who die alone. When I see military men and women my heart yearns for them to return safely lest they suffer the fate of the Dying Gaul. I cannot keep them safe and I won't be with any who fall, but somehow my heart wishes I could.

And so, my friends, here are not quite half the photos I took of him and the story behind why I find this statue so extraordinary - so powerful in my own personal journey. He is linked with my own emerging self-awareness and psychosexual identity and I have to admit: If any single man out there resembles him and should happen to smile affectionately at me, I'd still melt.

Coming up next: The Imperial Fora

--the BB

Heart thread - 05/30/2011 - all hands on deck!

2011-05-30T19:43:00.004-06:00

This is a shout out to all my friends and visitors. Kirstin Paisley is living with metastatic melanoma and having a very rough time of it. She and her roommate and caregiver need help. You can read all about it here, and please do.

To all of you who have wondered how you can help: HELP!!!!

We desperately need people who can just quietly be here daytimes on weekdays; having someone here for a few hours on Saturday so I can run errands would also be helpful. If you're local and can come for a day (or even half a day) every week, that would be wonderful. If you're from out of state and can come help out for a few days, or a week or more, that too would be marvelous.

...

Many of our friends have asked if Kirstin needs money. The answer is yes, no, maybe and probably. Neither medical insurance nor hospice covers this kind of in-home care - at most they provide an aide a few hours a week. If we can't find enough friends who can help and need to hire aides, or if the friends who have time are unemployed and can only come if we cover their travel and lodging expenses, then yes, she is going to need lots of money. If you can help cover some of these expenses (and thank you, Lisa and Neil for offering air miles!), or contribute towards other medical costs not covered by insurance, please, please write to Andee.

(For that matter, if you're in the Stockton/Lodi area, do you have a guest room that you'd be willing to make available to friends who are traveling from out of state to help us? Or if you're going to be out of town for part of the next few months, could they borrow your house, if needed? My house is tiny - Kirstin's in the bedroom, I'm sleeping in the living room.)

Other ways you can help--

Handyman skills: I really need to get my front sprinkler systems working again, because I don't have time while taking care of Kirstin to water by hand. (I think the valves just got clogged with dirt when the city repaired the sidewalk a few months ago. At any rate, I hope that's all it is.) We may also have to remove a couple of inside doors and the shower doors temporarily to make it easier for her to move from room to room, and get into the bathtub. If/when we have to bring in a hospital bed, I'll need to put up curtains in the living room, and will need a place to store some furniture (and strong arms/backs to help move it).

Gardening: This will make the second summer in a row that melanoma has taken precedence over gardening. The weeds (and unwanted zillions of baby oak trees) aren't tall - but they are plentiful. If that's your thing, have at it!

And of course prayers, love, emails, tears, hugs. What's sustaining us through this is knowing how many of you are with us. I love you all.

Andee

Paul writing now:

Thanks to all who have held Kirstin in your hearts and upheld her and Andee in prayer.

--the BB

Day Three - Campdoglio - Part Three

2011-05-23T21:32:00.032-06:00

We continue our tour through the Palazzo Nuovo on the Capitoline Hill. As always, you may click on the photos to see details.

A Wounded Warrior

The torso is ancient, presumed to be a copy of Myron's Discobolus, reworked by Pierre-Étienne Monnot (1658-1733) in a very different pose as a fallen warrior.

Close-up of the Head of Wounded Warrior

The galleries were thick with statues

This statue makes me think of the aged nurses in so many classical plays. You did not have to be young to be immortalized.

You will see many busts here. The individuality of them is striking.

I am going to assume this is Janus, the two-headed god of doorways and the turning of the year for whom the month of Januarius is named.

One of the emperors, I sadly forget which.

Jupiter

The Capitoline Venus

Made of precious marble (probably Parian), this is a Venus/Aphrodite emerging from her bath. Scholars debate whether she is an original or an early replica of this type. She is lovely.

Notice that the thumb does not quite touch the breast. How a sculptor can do this without damaging anything is beyond me. The hands are quite delicate.

My long-suffering travel companion whose research made our extraordinary itinerary possible, Bill contemplates Venus.

Infant Hercules who strangles snakes, believed to be a portrait of an actual child, possibly Caracalla or Annius Verus, son of Marcus Aurelius.

Anus Ebria (Drunken Old Woman)

This is thought to be a copy of a third century BC work from Smyrna.

Mosaic of Doves
from Hadrian's Villa (2nd century AD)

Mosaic of theatrical masks (2nd century AD)

Leda and the Swan

First century BC (?) copy of 4th century BC
work by Timotheos

There is one more installment on the Capitoline Museums, devoted to a single work.

--the BB

Day Three - Campidoglio - Part Two

2011-05-22T14:11:00.027-06:00

The Dying Gaul (of which much more later)

Marsyas challenged Apollo to a musical duel. For daring to challenge a God, Marsyas was condemned by Apollo to be flayed alive. This Roman copy of a Hellenistic original captures his anguish and was a model for later depictions of the Crucifixion of Jesus.

Horse and Charioteer

Hercules combating
Copy of a 4th c. BC bronze

Detail of Hercules

Presentation in the Temple with Saints
begun by Francesco Francia and
completed by Bartolomeo Passerotti

Your guide

We were more than ready to sit down for lunch and waited a while for a seat outside on the terrace, overlooking the roofs of Rome. What an incredible setting. Near us was a table that was a joy to observe, a multi-generational family or collection of friends obviously enjoying each other. This puts one in mind of the Italian proverb: A tavola non si invecchia (one does not age at the table) and of the reality that Italians know how to live and enjoy life.

Victory in her quadriga (four-horse chariot)
viewed from the terrazza

After lunch we crossed underneath the piazza to the Palazzo Nuovo that houses yet more art.

Another river god

This statue is called il Marforio because it was found in the Forum of Mars (Martis Forum). Stylistically it is from the Flavian period (first century AD). The attributes of Ocean were added in 1594.

Diana / Artemis

Diana the Huntress

I am guessing this is Pomona,
goddess of fruits and nuts,
for whom my undergraduate college is named,
and that is why I paused for this photo.

Hellenistic statue of a Satyr

Colossal statue of Mars, God of War

Hercules in a 17th century restoration of a late 2nd century AD Roman copy of a 4th century BC Greek original.

Wounded Amazon based on a work of Pheidias

Apollo with Lyre

Hall of the Faun

And that concludes today's tour. Lots more to come before we get to the Imperial Fora.

--the BB

Day Three - Campidoglio - the beginning

2011-05-20T21:01:00.033-06:00

Head of an Amazon, copy of an original bronze made for a competition in Ephesus between 444 and 430 BC. I think this is beyond stunning.

The Campidoglio is the modern Italian name for the Capitoline Hill where the major temples and seat of power lay in ancient Rome. Bill had researched all the major museums and knew we would not want to miss the ones here. And wowzer, what incredible art is within. So many works one knows from art history books are right here, the originals in their splendor.

Tonight's posting is just the warmup.

I was still tired from the Vatican trek the day before. I found this climb daunting. I made it but not without a pause. It was a very sunny day (hence the cap I picked up because I had forgotten my sunblock for the bald spot). The piazza at the top was designed by Michelangelo as are the steps (la Cordonata).

The original statue is now inside but this copy dominates the piazza. It is of Marcus Aurelius.

A detail of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

A river god in front of the Palazzo Senatorio, which housed the Senate from the 12th century and is now the office of the mayor of Rome.

The Palazzo dei Conservatori, seat of the city's magistrates in the late Middle Ages.

Colossal head of Constantine from the 4th century AD. I really should have someone nearby for scale. It's really big. Hand and foot below.

The following are other statues and reliefs in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.

With her parted lips she appears able to breathe or ready to speak. I was quite blown away by the ancient sculptures we saw on this trip.

Partway up the staircase there are several sculpted panels, reliefs in honor of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The first is his triumph.

In this panel Marcus Aurelius bestows clemency on two barbarian captives. I have a second shot here in black and white to show detail.

The emperor makes a sacrifice in front of the temple of Capitoline Jupiter.

The emperor enters the city, greeted by the Genius of the Senate, the Genius of the People, and the goddess Roma.

Il Spinario, the famous bronze statue of a boy pulling a thorn from his foot.

Camillus, a youth responsible for ritual duties, with silver inlay eyes, first century AD.

Go, Lobos! [Local University of New Mexico reference there, folks.]

The She-Wolf, from a fifth century BC workshop in Etruria or Magna Graecia, she was an ancient symbol of justice in the Lateran. With the addition of the suckling twin humans, possibly by Pollaiolo, she becomes the Mater Romanorum (Mother of Romans) and symbol of the city.

The head of Medusa by Bernini.

Alcibiades

Sappho

Socrates

Artemis of Ephesus

I am thinking this is Marcus Aurelius again.

And that concludes our opening tour. Much more to come.

--the BB

Day Three - Trajan's Column & VEII Monument

2011-05-19T19:09:00.020-06:00

Satellite view of the area

Martedì, 19 aprile

Having taken the Metro on Day Two we took it again on Day Three, this time changing lines, heading for the Colosseo stop. Emerging, we saw this.

But the Colosseum was not our destination. We had decided we could look at it from the outside. We had our hands full as it was, though we did not realize how much lay ahead of us. Our destinations were the Capitoline Hill and the Imperial Fora. So we marched down the Via dei Fori Imperiali, looking at the Fora below us on the left. We had decided to do the museums of the Capitoline first since museums require some alertness and attention. We wanted to be fresh.

Trust me, by the time we got to the Fora we were not fresh.

Our trek toward the Capitoline led us to two significant spots on the way: Trajan's Column and the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.

Trajan's Column (Italian: Colonna Traiana) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum. Completed in 113 CE, the freestanding column is most famous for its spiral bas relief, that artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106). Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.

The structure is about 30 metres (98 ft) in height, 35 metres (125 ft) including its large pedestal. The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal Carrara marble drums, each weighing about 32 tons, with a diameter of 3.7 meters (11 ft). The 190-metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the shaft 23 times. Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 stairs provides access to a viewing platform at the top. The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, which had to be lifted to a height of ca. 34 m.^[Wikipedia]

Bill captured some goomba tourist in front of the column.

I have highlighted some details so you can get a sense of the amazing narrative artistry in the column. [As usual, you can click on the photos to embiggen.]

Across the street is the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II.

The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II (National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II) or Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland) or "Il Vittoriano" is a monument to honour Victor Emmanuel, the first king of a unified Italy, located in Rome, Italy. It occupies a site between the Piazza Venezia and the Capitoline Hill. The monument was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885; sculpture for it was parceled out to established sculptors all over Italy, such as Angelo Zanelli. was inaugurated in 1911 and completed in 1935.[Wikipedia]

The statue of Italy stands above the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Equestrian statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, unifier of Italy and Father of the Nation.

Anyone who knows how I feel about those who risk their lives for their countries can anticipate that I prayed and wept here.

I close with a black-and-white detail of the opening Colosseum photo.

Next: Museums of the Capitoline Hill

--the BB

Day Two - Sistine Chapel & supper

2011-05-17T23:09:00.020-06:00

We all know that Michelangelo did the ceiling and the Last Judgment for the Sistine Chapel. The side walls have frescoes by Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, and Signorelli (scenes from the lives of Christ and of Moses).

As one nears the end of the tour of the Vatican Museums one follows signs through a maze of rooms to get there. The entry is by a small door (I had to stoop) and the guards keep urging people forward into a sea of gawkers. If I said we were sardines in the Raphael Rooms, that was nothing by comparison. One could hardly breathe in the Sistine Chapel. The ceiling is very high and I could not help thinking that I had seen it much better on television and in books, well lit and up close with detail.

I wrote in my journal that it was "introvert hell" and that I wanted to get out the second I was inside it. Making the best of the only time I expect ever to be there I shot as many photos as I could. Leaning backward to point the camera upward I was dizzy. The air was close and there was no personal space. The din was maddening. The photos here are pretty much the only ones that came out without blurring from my unsteady camera. Well, unsteady me. Let's hear it for zoom lenses.

The exit was through another single small door. Ah, to be in the spaciousness of cramped passageways again! It takes fifteen minutes to get back to the entrance/exit so we passed through a seemingly endless collection of painted papal wardrobes. I share a bit of the rest of the journey.

If this looks like an endless corridor through many doorways... it is.

And this is the cool staircase toward the exit, built in the 1930s.

Once outside and across the street we found a seat and had gelato (mine was pistachio) and water. Bill had an espresso for energy. Then a walk to the Metro and back to the hotel. The scent of orange blossoms was in the late afternoon air.

We took a very short walk down the street for supper at the Osteria Barberini. It is a lovely little place. Our waitress was a lovely young Rumanian woman and the food was delicious. A real bargain too. We shared a bottle of Dolcetto d'Alba. After dinner we walked around the Piazza Barberini and called it a day.

--the BB

Day Two - Vatican Museums - Raphael Rooms

2011-05-17T20:43:00.027-06:00

The Raphael Rooms were begun by Raphael and his pupils in 1508 for Pope Julius II. Raphael died before they were completed and his pupils continued.

As usual, if you click on the photos you will be able to see details. Enjoy!

Emperor Constantine's vision of the Cross

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge
where Constantine triumphed over Maxentius

Jacob's dream at Bethel

Moses and the Burning Bush

The Akedah, Binding of Isaac

The Dispute over the Holy Sacrament

The School of Athens

Next: the Sistine Chapel and food talk to round out Day Two.

--the BB

Day Two - Vatican Museums - Tapestries

2011-05-16T19:49:00.014-06:00

The tapestry gallery in the Vatican Museums is amazing. I know, one usually finds tapestries less than exciting. The gallery was not brightly lit, presumably to protect the tapestries from fading. When I took photos without a flash, however, what I saw in the camera was much brighter and the work is amazing.

You may need to click on these for detail. It will be worth it.

--the BB

Day Two - Vatican - Statuary

2011-05-15T21:56:00.013-06:00

Onward in the Vatican Museums tour!

The photos here are not in order and I don't feel like rearranging them, so just enjoy.

Here we have a full three-dimensional Mithras slaying the bull, complete with dog, serpent, scorpion. It is in the "zoology" room full of animal sculptures. It was roped off or I could have gotten some wild stuff. So to speak.

The Braccio Nuovo (New Arm, or what we might call the New Wing) was not crowded, unlike everywhere else except the Egyptian section, and I found this room very relaxing.

Octavian hails a taxi. (I could not resist.)

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. There is debate over whether these are breasts or bulls' testicles. We report; you decide.

Whew. This has been a marathon day for posting and we are not through with the Vatican Museums yet. We still have the tapestries, the Raphael Rooms, the Sistine Chapel, and miscellaneous to go.

I refer to it as the Vatican Museum Death March. It takes stamina but one should not miss it.

Ciao for niao, bambini.

--the BB

Les fleurs du printemps

2011-05-15T20:20:00.005-06:00

I just watered the yard. Here are some photos I took before watering. It is, indeed, the month of May in ABQ.

--the BB

Day Two - Vatican Museums - Octagonal Courtyard

2011-05-15T16:28:00.011-06:00

Il Cortile Ottagonale, inner court of the Belvedere Palace, was given its current shape in 1773. This is the starting point of the tour of the Vatican Museums and houses some terrific classical statuary, including some of the most famous statues of antiquity.

[Remember, you can click on the photos to see detail. These are memory-intensive pictures.]

An amazing sarcophagus with a battle scene

Scholar or philosopher, I'm not sure

Alas, poor horse

I think it's Hermes but I'm not sure

Isn't she lovely?

You may recall that December 25 in ancient Rome was the feast of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, corresponding to the winter solstice a long time ago. The sun, with rays, is in the upper left and Mithras slays the bull in the center. Mithraism centered in Rome and was a popular religion among Roman soldiers. When in northern England I saw the ruins of a Mithraeum, or temple of Mithras near Hadrian's Wall.

Here is the famous statue of Laocoon and his sons attacked by sea serpents. Ah, so much to say. Laocoon was a priest in Troy. When the Trojan Horse was brought up to Troy and left as a "gift" to appease the goddess Athena, Laocoon objected to taking it into the city. According to Vergil's Aeneid he said: Quidquid id est timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (Whatever it is I fear Greeks even bearing gifts). This is where we get the maxim to beware Greeks bearing gifts, a reference to the Trojan Horse, its belly full of Greek soldiers waiting to be taken within Troy so they could open the gates and attack.

Fearing lest her darling Greeks lose, Athena sent two sea serpents to attack Laocoon and his sons, slaying them. This was interpreted as divine judgment on his impiety. In fact, it was a divine act to shut him up lest he foil the plot. He was a priest of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the sea serpents were misinterpreted as sent by his own deity.

This awesome statue is not only technically beautiful and artfully composed, it captures a death struggle. Copies do not do it justice. It is also one of those illustrations from art history that young, closeted gay men could find in encyclopedias and swoon over. Well, at least one did. That muscled, manly body is - stone or no stone - H. O. T.

You need to click and enlarge these to appreciate them.

A river god

Ladies messing with a bull

Celebrating another military victory, no doubt

Apollo Belvedere
[It really is stunning.]

Yours truly. These ancient pieces make one feel young.

And that, my friends, is the first installment. I took hundreds of photos that Monday.

--the BB

Day Two - St Peter's

2011-05-15T13:57:00.022-06:00

After a late breakfast we headed to the tabaccheria for Metro tickets and then headed toward the Vatican. Here I am showing one lovely mosaic on the way to the Vatican and the rest are photos of St Peter's with some identifications but no commentary.

Remember, you can click on the photos to embiggen and see detail. (My friends and I have declared the embiggen IS SO a real word, so there.)

St Teresa of Avila when not in ecstasy

Saint Andrew, for all you Scots, Greeks, and Russians

Saint Helena

Saint Veronica

Altar in the chapel of St Gregory the Great

Altar with relics of St Gregory the Great

St Peter

Because I was taking photos without flash, the photos appear much lighter than what the eye sees. I was actually struck by how dark St Peter's seemed compared to what I expected. I realized that the papal masses I saw on television over the years were well lit and most photos had probably compensated much as my camera did. The crowd was dense but well behaved. The Pietà was being cleaned for JP2's beatification and curtained off so we could not see it.

I was beginning to realize how effective baroque statuary is with its sense of movement and drama. I also emerged thanking God for Martin Luther. Prior to the trip I wrote to my Baptist sister and said that her brother, on the rather Catholic end of the Episcopalian spectrum, would be a raging Protestant at the Vatican. And I was.

Perhaps it should be said at the outset that I did not go to Rome as a pilgrim in any sense. For all that I love church history this was a cultural and aesthetic trip for me. Coming with that stance it is not surprising that few things struck me as intrinsically spiritual while there. It is difficult for me to see St Peter's as designed for anything other than impressing visitors with the power of the papacy. Sorry, folks. My mystical and sacramental nature is deeply Catholic but it is very un-Roman. This is why I had, for decades, a love/hate relationship with the Catholic Church that I resolved by becoming a Reformed Catholic, i.e., Episcopalian.

More aspects of my now somewhat quirky spirituality will emerge as I narrate more of this trip.

I did go into the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament to pray and I prayed for family and friends, local, scattered, and online. Some who read here were remembered by name. I prayed a decade of the Rosary, having bought one for a coworker, though I did not take it out of the package, was just aware of it in my camera case as I recited the prayers.

After St Peter's we had lunch at the Caffè del Morro. Then we headed to the Vatican Museums for which we had tickets in advance, thus avoiding the line that can take hours. And that is another post.

Ci vediamo!

--the BB

The Rest of Day One - Rome

2011-05-14T15:39:00.017-06:00

Sunday, 17 April 2011

I checked my notes and see that our first lunch in Rome included maccheroni ammatriciana for Bill (large tubular noodles in a tomato, pancetta, and pecorino sauce) and a pizza capricciosa for me (with mushrooms, artichokes, olives, and prosciutto). I know my foodie friends need details such as this.

After lunch we returned to the hotel for maps and my cameras and headed out for our walk (partly described in the previous post). Here is a view looking down Via della Purificazione toward the Piazza Barberini.

For those of you who did not take Latin in high school or study Roman history, SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus (the Senate and the Roman People). You have seen it in many a bathrobe drama, often on the standards of Roman soldiers. It is still used today as you can see here.

The Roman aqueducts not only brought water to the city in ancient times, they still power the great fountains and the ubuquitous little fountains on streets everywhere. Here is one we passed every day.

Those who recall my photos of New Orleans know that I love architectural details. Check out the grill work above this door.

The door is located on the Via delle Quattro Fontane opposite the Palazzo Barberini (below). Here you see the statuary and gates.

This is the palazzo proper. It is the National Gallery of Classical Art (I take liberty translating Arte Antica as Classical Art because "antique" sounds odd in English here).

Maffei Barberini became Pope Urban VIII and had a palace built. One of the architects was Bernini. Below is the entrance loggia.

The stairs leading up toward the gardens:

The staircase:

From the museum website I have snaffled some samples for you:

Titian's Venus and Adonis (post 1553)

Andrea del Sarto's Sacra Famiglia (1528-29)

Hans Holbein's Henry VIII (1540)

Raphael's La Fornarina (1520). She was his mistress, though there is some question whether this work was by his hand.

We had visited the museum while waiting for Santa Maria della Vittoria to open. Inside the church I prayed and this was my Palm Sunday worship. If you read this blog, you were prayed for.

The church was begun in 1605 as a chapel dedicated to Saint Paul for the Discalced Carmelites. After the Catholic victory at the battle of White Mountain in 1620, which reversed the Reformation in Bohemia, the church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary. Turkish standards captured at the 1683 siege of Vienna hang in the church, as part of this theme of victory.

The order itself funded the building work until the discovery in the excavations of the Borghese Hermaphroditus. Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, appropriated this sculpture but in return funded the rest of work on the facade and granted the order his architect Giovanni Battista Soria. These grants only came into effect in 1624, and work was completed two years later. [Wikipedia]

Here is a ceiling shot I managed to get.

The fame of this church lies in a Bernini masterpiece. In the Cornaro Chapel, to the left of the high altar, may be found St Teresa in Ecstasy.

The statues depict a moment described by Saint Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, where she had the vivid vision of an angel piercing her heart with a golden shaft, causing her both immense joy and pain. The flowing robes and contorted posture abandon classical restraint and repose to depict a more passionate, almost voluptuous trance. [Wikipedia]

My close-ups did not come out well so I share one shot from a distance for the dramatic context.

Here is a photo I took from the web:

From there we headed down to the Piazza della Repubblica and sat our weary selves down to enjoy some gelato and water. Then we visited le Terme di Diocleziano (The Baths of Diocletian), now divided between the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli and one of the sites of the Rome National Museum. The baths were built in 306 AD and Michelangelo redesigned the church in 1563, though 18th century remodeling changed it greatly. The scale is stunning.

A colossal statue named Meditation:

The oculus:

We had a serious nap after all this, then went to dinner at Ristorante Crispi 19. We had a bottle of Lacrima del Morro, from the Marches, and a bottle of Pellegrino. Bill dined on Amberjack tuna on a bed of mushrooms and tomatoes with a topping like shredded filo dough for crunch. Spread around this were two sauces: one a basil oil and the other tuna-based. I had a medallion of beef with a crisped polenta topping and a "lasagne" of potatoes, paired with spinach, and basil oil and a potato "sauce." I will quote from journal on dessert.

For dolci Bill had a layer of finely chopped cooked apples with a slightly nut flavored mousse, pistacchio gelato [using the Italian spelling here] and a caramel chocolate sauce. I had a "chocolate lava cake" with gelato on a crisped candied thin slice of Seville orange (awesome!).

After dinner we walked to la Trinità dei Monti, down the Scalinata (the Spanish Steps) and from the Piazza di Spagna back to the hotel "by way of the Inquisition."

Here is a view from the top of the Spanish Steps at night.

And here is the City College of the Propagation of the Faith. (Sent a chill down my spine, I tell you. Like walking past KGB offices in Russia.)

By the time we got back and I finished writing up the day it was 10 PM local time and bedtime.

By now y'all know why we came home tired. This was day one.

--the BB

First meal in Rome

2011-05-06T20:40:00.005-06:00

Having made it to Rome on Sunday, 17 April, we braved the Leonardo Express from Fumicino Airport to the Roma Termini (not so bad) and the taxi from the station to the hotel (terrifying). We got a little bit settled and then walked up to the top of the street and around the corner to La Scala Ristorante/Pizzeria. There we sat outdoors on a glorious day, had our first true Italian pizza (nice!), and enjoyed this view looking down the block toward the Via Veneto. We went back to this restaurant at the end of our stay in Rome. Nice food, lovely wines, and the staff was easy on the eyes.

After lunch we took a walk down to the Piazza Barberini, viewed the Fontana del Tritone, then hiked up the slopes of the Quirinal Hill to le Quattro Fontane.

Me in front of the Fontana del Tritone, Piazza Barberini, Roma

Le Quattro Fontane, the Four Fountains, one at each corner of the intersection

I will discuss the museum and churches in another post. This, mind you, was our first outing.

On the way to Sta Maria della Vittoria we saw this imposing Moses at yet another fountain, recalling Moses striking the rock and bringing forth water.

Before that we had passed the Ministry of Defense. Rather a different feel than that of the Pentagon, don't you think?

And when we reached the Piazza della Repubblica we had our first gelato and rested a bit.

I still have to recount our first museum and church and that evening we walked to the Spanish Steps and back.

Battling jet lag all this week, not getting enough sleep, and trying to get over a cold, so I am slow posting photos. But they will come.

Ciao, amici!

--the BB

The last evening in Florence

2011-04-30T13:44:00.003-06:00

Here's your initial post card, folks. I am sorting through about 1200 photos so give me some time. Also there is jet lag. We had a great time, saw about three churches and/or museums per day, walked everywhere, and both came down with colds at the end. Tomorrow: The Mikado at Popejoy here in Albuquerque. I may suffer a surfeit of culture.

For those who missed it on Facebook, I made the comment to Bill that if I see one more effing Madonna I'm gonna puke. One can see too much Renaissance art at one time.

Lots to remember and ponder. We ate well, consistently, and came home with a few extra pounds. I want to cook more, so that part of the inspiration worked. There were statues that made us weep.

Before any more posts on the trip to Italy, discussed for three decades and finally taken, I want to thank two of my high school teachers who spurred the interest and gave me the background to appreciate what I saw. Thank you Betty Wiley and Alan Amend, Latin and humanities, respectively.

That I could view Bernini's statue of Aeneas bearing his father Anchises as his son Ascanius tags along, leaving the ruins of Troy for an unknown future, I could quote lines from Vergil's Aeneid in Latin and feel the tears streaming down my cheeks. Mrs. Wiley arranged it so Joel Steinberg and I could take Vergil in our junior year by passing Latin 2 as a do-it-yourself summer course. The seeds she planted took root.

Mr. Amend, if I remember correctly I had to do a presentation on Hans Memling and was not that excited about him. One portrait in the Uffizi undid me and I humbly repent. Thank you for teaching us about Renaissance art and how to even conceptualize and discuss art.

--the BB

Greetings from Florence

2011-04-23T13:44:00.001-06:00

Yep, after talking for three decades about going to Italy, El Cuervito and I are finally in la bella Italia. Walked over what must be 2\3 of Rome last week and now we are in Florence. Photos to follow after our return.

Buona Pascua a tutti!

My message to the Republicans in Congress:

2011-04-09T08:01:00.001-06:00

You are domestic terrorists writ large. There was a time citizens knew how to treat you.

--the BB