The song of the Flea

While writing my previous posting I came to think of this song, performed by the great Finnish bass Kim Borg.

Simple pleasures nr 6: Flea Markets

Japanese flea market

A usually open-air market for secondhand articles and antiques
(translation of French Marché aux puces, a market in Paris)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Where-ever you travel in the world, you are bound to find flea markets. Some of them are not what they used to be, but there are still many where you can make great bargains.

This is an excellent site to find out about flea markets around the world.

My serious interest in flea markets began in Copenhagen, a city with many excellent markets. Here you find more information about them.

London is another city with many interesting flea markets. And, of course, the orignal flea market is in Paris.

(Image by free-photos.biz)

A musical surprise at the shopping mall

What happens when shoppers in a mall are confronted with a musical surprise? This Canadian video has become a huge success on the internet.

Ingmar Bergman on why art lost its creative drive

Chartres cathedral on a 1950s postcard

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection

Michelangelo

The Swedish film and theatre director Ingmar Bergman refers to the building of the Chartres Cathedral in his thought-provoking essay, "The Making of Film" from 1954:

“There is an old story of how the cathedral of Chartres was struck by
lightning and burned to the ground. Then thousands of people came from
all points of the compass, like a giant procession of ants, and
together they began to rebuild the cathedral on its old site. They
worked until the building was completed–master builders, artists,
laborers, clowns, noblemen, priests, burghers. But they all remained
anonymous, and no one knows to this day who built the cathedral of
Chartres."
“Regardless of my own beliefs and my own doubts, which are unimportant
in this connection, it is my opinion that art lost its basic creative
drive the moment it was separated from worship. It severed an
umbilical cord and now lives its own sterile life, generating and
degenerating itself. In former days the artist remained unknown and
his work was to the glory of God. He lived and died without being more
or less important than other artisans; ‘eternal values,’ ‘immortality’
and ‘masterpiece’ were terms not applicable in his case. The ability
to create was a gift. In such a world flourished invulnerable
assurance and natural humility."

“Today the individual has become the highest form and the greatest
bane of artistic creation. The smallest wound or pain of the ego is
examined under a microscope as if it were of eternal importance. The
artist considers his isolation, his subjectivity, his individualism
almost holy. Thus we finally gather in one large pen, where we stand
and bleat about our loneliness without listening to each other and
without realizing that we are smothering each other to death. The
individualists stare into each other’s eyes and yet deny the existence
of each other. We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties
that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the
gangster’s whim and the purest idea.”

PS

Bergman´s message is good to keep in mind when we hear about the huge sums art collectors/nouveau riche people pay for mediocre works by overhyped contemporary artists.

Chartres Cathedral

Chartres Cathedral – reconstructed over a 26-year period after a devastating fire in 1194 - is truly one of the architectural wonders of the world. What makes it unique, is that it is almost completely preserved in its original design. No other cathedral has been so well preserved. Chartres even survived the destruction and looting that took place during the French Revolution.

Chartres Cathedral has also since the Middle Ages been – and still is – a major pilgrimage destination. Its most famous relic is the tunic of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sancta Camisia, that was given to the cathedral by Charlemagne in the year 876.

Approaching the Chartres Cathedral by car from the North offers an additional bonus. The cathedral seems to be hovering in the air above the wheat fields. Only when you are quite close does the city become more visible.

A brief presentation of the cathedral by UNESCO:

And another excellent video by National Geographic:

Useful information about the Chartres cathedral here and here.


PS
One can only wonder, how many buildings from our age will be there for people to admire 800 or 1000 years from now? Considering the way modern buildings are constructed, it is likely that the answer is nil. But the mighty Chartres Cathedral will certainly be there even then, provided that it is not destroyed by pollution, fire or some other catastrophic event.

"O Holy Night" sung by Jussi Björling

The great - maybe the greatest of them all - Swedish tenor Jussi Björling´s rendition of  "O Holy Night" (sung in Swedish) has been part of my Christmas as long as I can remember. There is not better version of this beautiful song!

"O Holy Night" is included in this 2CD package of some of Björling´s finest recordings.

Brideshead Revisited

"Waugh's most deeply felt novel . . . Brideshead Revisited tells an absorbing story in imaginative terms . . . Mr. Waugh is very definitely an artist, with something like a genius for precision and clarity not surpassed by any novelist writing in English in his time."
 New York Times

Best series ever
Washington Post


Evelyn Waugh´s magnificent novel was dramatised by British Granada Television in the early 80´s. The series - altogether thirteen hous of television, shot enterily on location - deservedly became a huge success, and is, at least in my opinion, unsurpassed by any other television dramatisation.

Evelyn Waugh described his novel in a note to Lady Dorothy Lygon (the original model for Lady Cordelia Flyte):

"I am writing a very beautiful book, to bring tears, about very rich, beautiful, high born people who live in palaces and have no troubles except what they make themselves and those are mainly the demons of sex and drink which, after all, are easy to bear as troubles go nowadays".

Sadly, the technical quality of the complete series discs is not as good as one could wish, but nevertheless, this series is a must for everybody who enjoys watching quality television.

Here is an excerpt from the Granada television production:

Watch a documentary on the making of Brideshead revisited: