tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post8601230694266180160..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: The flawed genius of ValhallaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-87156266421918360902009-08-11T22:18:44.133+01:002009-08-11T22:18:44.133+01:00Garth, we do even need to go to France to find a &...Garth, we do even need to go to France to find a <i>'carved and beveled 'shell''</i>.<br /><br />We will be seeing this one on Thursday of this week when we meet the Tashi Lhunpo Monks -<br /><br />http://www.overgrownpath.com/2005/03/easter-at-aldeburgh.html<br /><br />The shell in that post is still subject to occasional cultic defacing by Aldeburgh locals who don't appreciate contemporary art.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-32965647147319733312009-08-11T21:52:46.398+01:002009-08-11T21:52:46.398+01:00Pliable, the conversation started ‘innocently’ eno...Pliable, the conversation started ‘innocently’ enough with the 74-year old Irish Catholic former military guard ‘divulging’ to me that the National Gallery had had to step up security for Abbot Suger’s Chalice (link to picture, below), in the small Treasury collection next to the tapestries, ever since the publication of Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”, since the Hellenistic 1st c. BCE carved and beveled thin stone 'shell' at the center of the chalice had once held Christ’s blood. Except that it was really hot outside, I don’t know why he was telling me that the NGA had installed three secret cameras and extensive surveillance sensors in the room in the past few years. He also told me, interestingly, that the Chalice had been loaned a few years back to the Moscow Kremlin Museum, which he said holds the five other remaining secret chalice cups which held the blood of Christ and which were used for cultic rituals in the medieval period.<br /><br />(I mention this in case you and your wife ever stumble on the six remaining Hellenistic carved and beveled 'shells' on your annual French journeys …)<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Suger_Chalice.jpg<br /><br />Also:<br /><br />http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/fertility-rise-for-richest-boon-or-trouble/?scp=1&sq=fertility&st=cseGarth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-16120869834117962182009-08-11T21:20:52.443+01:002009-08-11T21:20:52.443+01:00Garth, I suspect that guard from the National Gall...Garth, I suspect that guard from the National Gallery in Washington D.C. may have been one of the callers to the recent BBC Radio 5 Live discussion about the future of the Proms that I had the misfortune to take part in.<br /><br />More on the flawed genius of Valhalla tomorrow.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-11971335370069924682009-08-11T20:22:40.236+01:002009-08-11T20:22:40.236+01:00There was an interesting article in yesterday'...There was an interesting article in yesterday's New York Times on how the recent and unexpected uptick in women's fertility levels in "advanced" nations is allowing countries such as Sweden (and Russia, Japan, and Korea?) to contemplate seeking a steady state population through internal growth alone, rather than through the 'immigration-friendly' policies of Canada, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, and a few other countries.<br /><br />I couldn't find the exact link when I looked for it now.<br /><br />This came to mind clicking on your link "Music and Integration" and reading your description of the references to different cultures in Malcolm Arnold's symphonies. <br /><br />(Today I stopped in at the local National Gallery at lunch-time to escape the tedium and the heat, and to look at the tapestries for a half hour; and a senior guard who I had seen for years but never spoken with came up to me and told me that President Obama was really born in Canada and should be shipped back to Illinois. I knew then that the spiritual and economic recession wasn't yet over by a long-shot.)Garth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.com