2023

 Happy New Year, A.D. 2023. It is as well to wish it. 

Not everyone will agree with me on the following.

I really don't care.

We thought that the Puritans were subdued when Oliver Cromwell's warty head was paraded on a pike yet, like a biblical plague of locusts, they are back in swarms, and want to cancel Christmas Yet To Come: 'to save the planet' Tuna Grimberg-style.

We also thought that Communism was a failing experiment, confined to certain, defined corners of the world. However, like a sudden, vast army of red ants, quasi-Communists are adapting into functionaries of the unelected, autocratic, subversive World Economic Forum's new model army, for the One World Order: blending 'population control' with totalitarianism, and feudalism. 

We lost our truly iconic Queen, and we now have an irritable, self-centred, lacklustre head of a highly dysfunctional remaining family, unfilling her place. Having spent decades at once protesting that he has no political function, he was also enthusiastically conspiring, hand in glove with the WEF, to bring its undemocratic totalitarian agenda to fruition, under the beard of 'environmentalism'. 

I doubt whether The Old Pretence will be with the rest of us in 'owning nosink und being heppy', according to Big Brother Schweizer Schwab. What do you think? Moreover, this particular 'environmentalism' does not seem to be aimed at the companies laying horrific, obvious physical waste to the land, the rainforests, and the oceans. It is all concerned with imprecise twaddle about 'global warming' or 'climate change' of our (dying) planet, as part of its 4.5 billion year history.

The Neo-Communists are  mobilising - the likes of the WEF; the Hungarian Nazi; Bubba G and, with their bent robots, already, quite openly, subverting the real will of the people. Whether they will sweep throughout South America, and lay it to the same waste as Cuba and Venezuela, or just buy it all, remains to be seen. With the help of the UN, and Communist judges, springing Lula from his lengthy gaol term for massive corruption, summarily expunging his record, and refusing to allow a constitutional audit of the recent election, they are making real headway in Brazil; as they made serious headway in total control everywhere with 'the pandemic', and their pharmaceutical poisons, and as they are right now inching out digital currency, economic and social control, Chinese-style digital identity, social points, and '15 mile cities', as well as teaching Gen Z to become terrorised, culture-cancelling vandals, ignorami, and even bigger slaves than the millions already mercilessly exploited on the 'minimum wage'; soon to be earning much less than enough to pay basic bills; while vast, rootless, untaxed corporations swell their profits to record levels, and smirk in their offshore shadows.

None of our national situation is helped by an apparently arranged and paid for (even encouraged) long-haul migration of tens of thousands of paperless, alien immigrants to our shores by irregular routes; nor by the lamentable fact that we have not just The Sugar Plum Fairy as captain of our football team, but we have its siblings leading all the opposition parties - all as equally sold-out to the WEF as the thumping, thick-skinned, narcisistic snob, who is the unelected, unmandated Prime Minister which we had thrust upon us, once the WEF declined to accept party members' due election of Ms Truss.  

Our apparently undenied vetoing of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, in the tragedy there, and our pandering to the diktats of the US Deep State, openly interfering in the region, in a plan arranged with their planted President Zelensky, and relayed through an obviously senile marionette, are an utter and complete disgrace to our nation. It sounds like the ultimate bathos but what we really need is a leader, like the one played by Hugh Grant, in Love Actually, who will tell the US Deep State, and Sleepy Joe, and the WEF to sling their hooks.

Many people seem to be as glad to see the back of 2022, as they were of 2021. Whether 2023 will be any better, or much, much worse depends upon US ALL WAKING UP TO WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT UNDER OUR VERY NOSES.

Accordingly: Happy New Year - and 'God Bless Us Every One'.

I have attached this to a recording of the ending of the 1812 Overture, by Tchaikovsky; for two reasons: first, because the inclusion of the cannons and the bells is uplifting and, secondly, because the warmongering, whimpering, snivelling, self-pitying, oleaginous, thespian, jetting, international tramp, and scrounger, Zelensky, has been trying to persuade countries not to play Tchaikovsky - just because he was Russian.

https://youtu.be/u2W1Wi2U9sQ

Dovima, by Richard Avedon

 

LOSING TOUCH

 'We are not sure of sorrow,

And joy was never sure;

To-day will die to-morrow;

Time stoops to no man's lure...'

From 'The Garden of Prosperpine', by A. C. Swinburne.

I was thinking of the whole streets of the houses of those whom I have known in this town; from those who were already really very old when I was a small child, up to the more recent death announcements, mainly for members of my parents' generation. There are roll calls of them. It is true that I have been quite far away, for decades, more than I have ever been here. 

However, friends and acquaintances, who date from the beginning of our memory, never really fade much, if at all; even though we have not seen them, or even heard of them, for years on end. Then, when one comes across them again (sometimes, but not always, through social media), there are various reactions. 

Some people behave as though we have always been in touch, or take up where we left off (and it might have been at age 10). However, quite a number are happy to reminisce at a safe distance but, even though we might now live fairly close, fight shy of actually meeting. Sometimes, I feel the same, and I have been wondering why. I have heard it said that remeeting people after a parting is redolent of the resurrection, but I feel that applies most to serendipitous encounters.

There can be a degree of reluctance to engage in a prolonged reunion, and it is not shyness. No, I think that it is because we like to keep our memories intact, and we do not want them disturbed - or even shattered - in their overall integrity, *by what we have all become*.

The Woodlanders

 Rusty and I went for a woodland walk, and discovered this scented, cream rhodie in bloom. On the way back, for some reason, I asked whether she had met Mr and Mrs 'P' when she was in Brazil. Apparently not. Then I said:

"Mr P was a total wreck: cocaine, alcohol, cigarettes, and had lost most of his teeth - but had kept his hair."

Rusty: "Apart from the cocaine and the hair, that sounds like you."

Podcast, hosted by Mimi Novic

 Mimi Novic (miminovic.co.uk) kindly invited me to do a podcast, which is here: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3gjL2xdq7UBq20V1W8vsT4?si=AxOVLVUHTYavofXEL6cjEA

Mimi also really inspired me to get posting here again!

 https://youtu.be/2Sw1G1GDmqg

Elis Regina's performances have long beguiled my senses. The internet does not bring us scent, but performances, such as this, get as close as possible. Her living scent reaches out, from beyond her early grave. If those whom the gods love die young, she was surely one of them.

After the seeming end of the song, and at the beginning of the applause, the drums beat back in, and she goes on, giving them more, very naturally; to a perfect ending. No wonder that she was her nation's darling, and that they filled the streets for her funeral. Brazilians call her 'Furação' - 'Hurricane'.

Thanks to live recordings, she beguiles our senses forever.

Very rough translation of the lyrics:

Two Steps Here, Two Steps There.

With a chill in my soul,

I asked you to dance,

Your voice was soothing;

Two steps here, two steps there.

 

My treacherous heart

Was pounding more than the bongo drums,

Shivering more than the maracas,

Skipping beats with love.

 

My head was spinning,

Making turns more than any couple on the dance floor,

Oh your sweet perfume of gardenias

Just don't ask me to tell any more of it...

 

Your hand landing on my neck,

The smoothness of your back,

Which haunted as a phantasy,

My lonely nights for so long.

 

A fake diamond ring on my finger,

A pair of earrings matching the necklace,

And the end of an annoying Band-Aid,

Hurting one of my heels.

 

Now here I am, lonely, making myself drunk,

With a mix of whisky and Guaraná soda,

I just heard your voice, gently whispering:

'Two steps here, two steps there'.

In total abandonment, you left the illusion,

That I had in my heart for you.

Rio de Janeiro, from Santa Teresa.

 

Flower sellers in Old Covent Garden Market.

 

 

Mary Nolan.

 

 Motor Car Mascots

Two of the most famous motor car symbols in the world must surely be Rolls Royce’s Spirit of Ecstasy, and Mercedes-Benz’s Three Pointed Star. Each of them has a much less than obvious origin.

Rolls Royce

The first Rolls Royces were delivered without any radiator ornament at all. However, in 1909, an early motoring enthusiast, John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, commissioned artist and sculptor Charles Robinson Sykes to sculpt him a mascot for his own Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. Sykes took as his model Eleanor Velasco Thornton, who had risen from modest origins, and had been Montagu’s secretary, since 1902, on the staff of Montagu’s magazine, The Car Illustrated, appearing on the cover, and in skits as ‘Alice in Motorland’, and she very probably became Montagu’s mistress. 

Eleanor was already in a clique of early motoring enthusiasts, including Montagu, Sykes, Charles Rolls, Henry Royce, and Claude Johnson. She had even been involved in organizing the 1000 Mile Car Trial in 1900, in which Montagu had competed, as well as being a model and inspiration for some of Sykes’s earlier art works. From this commission, the prototype of the eventual Spirit of Ecstasy resulted – with a female figure in exiguous, windswept clothes, one leg raised – and with a forefinger pressed to her lips, which was easily interpreted as a symbol of secret love, and this mascot became known as The Whisper.

Owing to early Rolls Royce owners’ inclination for privately commissioning radiator adornments which Claude Johnson, the chairman of Rolls Royce, sometimes saw as inappropriate, he decided in 1910 that the company should produce its own mascot, to discourage such practices, and turned to Sykes, with the instructions to produce a symbol that would convey: “...the spirit of the Rolls Royce, namely, speed with silence, absence of vibration, the mysterious harnessing of great energy and a beautiful, living organism of superb grace.” Johnson wanted an evocation of classical beauty, in the form of Nike. Sykes then adapted the design of The Whisper into what was, at first, called the Spirit of Speed, and which became, from February 1911, the enduring symbol called the Spirit of Ecstasy; incidentally, many say still bearing Eleanor Thornton’s features. 

Indeed, it became her unofficial memorial after she was lost at sea in 1915 when, travelling with Montagu, their ship, SS Persia, was hit by a torpedo from a German U-boat in the Mediterranean. Swept out of his arms by a surge of water on deck, she was lost, but Montagu survived.  Sykes’s signature, and the date February 6th 1911, appeared on the plinths of the castings of the Spirit of Ecstasy until 1951. Originally fitted as an optional extra (and rather disliked by Henry Royce), it became standard by the 192s. 

Originally, it was silver plated, until 1914; after that nickel or chrome was used; although it has also been made in gold plate and, sadly, even studded with diamonds. The need for clearer driving vision from the windscreens of later, lower cars first gave rise to the Kneeling Lady (also designed by Sykes), which was used between 1934-1939 and also between 1946-1956; until a standing version, in a reduced size, was produced for modern vehicles.  The modern version, a mere three inches in height, retracts on impact but, despite this mundane practicality, carries with it still the romantic aura of its origins. 

Another, much less known but interesting, mascot design appeared in 1957, in Rolls Royce’s sister company. Owing to a demand for a lower, sportier Bentley saloon, the coach builder H J Mulliner (later merged with Park Ward), introduced a streamlined four-door saloon, designed by Herbert Nye, on the Bentley S1 Continental chassis. The chairman of Mulliner’s between 1944-1960 was Harry Talbot Johnstone, and the crest of a ‘winged spur’ on his arms was adopted as the Flying Spur on the radiator cap of some examples of this innovative model of Bentley. Other coach builders, such as James Young, copied the sleek four-door Continental design – and it also appeared in a Rolls Royce version - but these others are not true Flying Spurs at all; although they are often innocently misdescribed as such. 

Daimler and Mercedes Benz

Gottlieb Daimler originally founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in 1890, while Carl Benz began Benz & Cie in 1883. Both businesses helped lay the early foundations of motorized vehicle transportation, and Benz is widely credited as the inventor of the internal combustion engine, while Daimler delivered the first production-line, four cylinder street cars. The British Daimler Motor Company Limited, founded by H J Lawson in London in 1896, was entirely separate; Lawson just having bought the licence to use the Daimler name from Gottlieb Daimler. In fact, amongst the first cars collected and driven by John Douglas-Scott-Montagu were German Daimlers and, as a result of him driving the then Prince of Wales in one, the first horseless carriage soon owned by the British royal family was a German Daimler.

After Gottlieb Daimler died in 1900, chief engineer Wilhelm Maybach took over and  formed an association with racing enthusiast Emil Jellinek. It was the name of Jellinek’s daughter Mercédès – a Spanish girl’s name, meaning “mercies” (deriving from the Spanish name for the Virgin Mary), which was the inspiration for the later, enduring trade name of the merged companies, Daimler and Benz. In 1900 Jellinek had bought and modified a Daimler car, which he called ‘Mercedes’. When the Daimler and Benz companies merged in 1926, the joint brand name became Mercedes- Benz.

Daimler’s sons Paul and Adolf recalled an 1872 picture postcard sent by their father to their mother with a three-pointed star, marking the location of his house in Germany, with the explanation that, one day, the star would shine over his factory and bring prosperity to it. DMG took the star as the company’s logo, trademarking three and four-pointed stars, but only actually using the now familiar three-pointed one. The logo began in a blue colour but was changed to its signature silver after the company’s involvement in the first Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 1934.

Meanwhile, Benz & Cie trademarked its own logo: originally, a laurel wreath surrounding the company’s name. On merger of the companies in 1926, the name became Mercedes-Benz, which first appeared in a laurel wreath, around Daimler’s three-pointed star. Accordingly, in the modern logo, which is just the three-pointed star, there is Daimler’s original concept, and in the name Mercedes-Benz there is the name of a little girl, who had no more association with either company than that her father had had an association with the Daimler company.

 According to the modern Mercedes-Benz company, the three-pointed star has always represented the company’s drive towards universal motorization; with its engines dominating all means of transport in the three elements of land, sea, and air. 

Whether the symbol of the Three Pointed Star or the symbol of the Spirit of Ecstasy now holds more sway in the imagination of the world, I leave to the reader to judge.

Well, I suppose that I might as well restart this

I find this performance, by Elis Regina, of her own song, just the most moving performance of anything that I have ever watched. It also coincides with tremendous saudades for Brasil, and my own feelings at this time.

https://youtu.be/35FPZR24djg