Thursday 29 December 2011

Passion Pit - Little Secrets - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcOcCJYfJN8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
MGMT - Kids (cover) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hbPhS5t8V8&feature=share
Golden Skans - Klaxons (live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njm44K8wyCY&feature=g-u&context=G230e099FUAAAAHgAcAA
Golden Skans - Klaxons - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-SJjFcnsGs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqWzfH71Bww
Friendly Fires - Jump in the Pool - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofRCldHb7X0
Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFybeuLh54
The Subways - It's A Party - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN5lplFhcyQ
Tilly and the Wall - Beat Control
Emiliana Torrini - Nothing Brings Me Down
I Love the Unknown - Clem Snide
NOFX - You're Wrong
What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club
Something Good Can Work - Two Door Cinema Club
Say You Don't Want It - One Night Only
Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire
Ready to Start - Arcade Fire
Numb - Linkin Park
Warm Whispers - Missy Higgins
Boulevard... - Green Day
Always Like This - BBC
Somebody Told Me - The Killers - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5fBdpreJiU&ob=av3e
Tokyo - The Wombats
Anti-D - The Wombats
Moving to New York - The Wombats
Arlandria - Foo Fighters
What's Up? - 4 Non-Blondes
Intro - The XX

Monday 26 December 2011

PRB

http://pre-raphs.bmagonline.org/techniques/ - Rechniques

Sunday 25 December 2011

'Sleeping is giving in
No matter what the time is
Sleeping is giving in
So lift those heavy eyelids' - Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_aFmziaRdU&ob=av2e

'in my dreams we're still screaming' - the suburbs - Arcade Fire

'Always seems to me

You only see what people want you to see' - Whatever - Oasis

'If my velocity starts to make you sweat

Then just don't let go' - Planetary (Go!) - MCR

'The doctor asked him what he was afraid of
Just what was he running from?
He said, "It's not a fear of success, nor of closeness
But of going through life feeling numb"' - I Love the Unknown - Clem Snide

'Take me out tonight

Take me anywhere, I don't care
I don't care, I don't care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought Oh God, my chance has come at last
But then a strange fear gripped me
And I just couldn't ask' - There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out - The Smiths

'In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule

I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black

And I held my tongue as she told me

"Son fear is the heart of love"

So I never went back' - I Will Follow You Into the dark - Death Cab for Cutie

'Control yourself
Take only what you need from it
A family of trees wanting to be haunted' - Kids - MGMT

'Will those feet in modern times

Walk on soles that are made in China? ' - Love is Noise - The Verve

'I'm not whole
I'm not whole
You waste it all ' Always Like This - Bombay Bicycle Club

'This ain't a song for the broken-hearted

No silent prayer for the faith-departed

....

It's my life

It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

(It's my life)

My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

....

Tomorrow's getting harder, make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky, gotta make your own breaks' - It's My Life - Bon Jovi

'So pack up the bags to beat back the clock
Do I let her sleep or should I wake her up?
You said
We both go together if one falls down
Yeah right, heh
I talk out loud like you're still around
No Noo
And I miss you (ooooh')
I'm goin back home to the West Coast
I wish you woulda put yourself in my suitcase
I love you
Standin' all alone in a black coat' - West Coast - Coconut Records

'And from the ballroom floor we are in celebration
One good stretch before our hibernation
Our dreams assured and we all, will sleep well
Sleep well
Sleep well
Sleep well
Sleep well

....

You are the best one, of the best ones
We all look like we feel' - Stolen - Dashboard Confessional

'Can't you see?

Life's easy

If you consider things
From another point of view

Ah ah ah ah ah ah
Ah ah
In another way
From another point of view' - Point of View - DB Boulevard

'We are always running for the thrill of it thrill of it
Always pushing up the hill searching for the thrill of it
On and on and on we are calling out and out again
Never looking down I'm just in awe of what's in front of me' - Walking On A Dream - Empire of the Sun

'Love forever love is free
Let's turn forever you and me' - Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz

'C'mon, baby, c'mon, c'mon, darling,

Let me steal this moment from you now.' - Running Up That Hill (Cover) - Placebo

'Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear

...

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do' - Run - Snow Patrol

'Do the things that you always wanted to

Without me there to hold you back, don't think, just do
More than anything I want to see you, girl
Take a glorious bite out of the whole world' - You Could Be happy - Snow Patrol

Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you
My bones ache, my skin feels cold
And I'm getting so tired and so old
....
Get up, get out, get away from these liars
'Cause they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time

Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere

'All that I am

All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see' - Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

'Just say yes, just say there's nothing holding you back
It's not a test, nor a trick of the mind
Only love' - Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol

'We walk, we walk

We walk, we walk
When nothing makes you feel good
Then nothing makes you feel good' We Walk - The Ting Tings

'Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best' - The Fray

'What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender? - The Pretender - The Foo Fighters

'Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called' - Butterflies and Hurricans - Muse

'but I feel alive, oh, I feel it in me
up and up we keep on climbing
higher and higher and higher
higher and higher and higher' - Little Secrets - Passion Pit

'When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.' - Day is Done - Nick Drake

'How do you tell a child that there's no God up in the sky
And it's all a lie
For nothing' - Sappho - Tribes

'better to be hated than loved, loved for what you're not' - I am not a Robot

'my eyes have always followed you around the room' - If I had a Gun

'Yeah, oh don't you put me on the back burner
You know you got to help me out' - The Killers

'God bless your soul girl
Now you got the whole world' - The Subways

Friday 23 December 2011

Woman's Hour Drama - Possession

'Roland Michell, an academic research assistant, is completing some work in the London Library, when he comes across two unfinished letters written by the Victorian Poet, Randolph Henry Ash. These letters have obviously not been found by anyone else and they are not to his wife but to an unknown woman. Roland, whose entire academic life has been devoted to studying Ash, decides, recklessly to pocket the letters and try to determine exactly who they were written to.
This is the beginning of a quest that will change literary history and with the help of a feminist literary scholar Maud Bailey, they are determined to find out the truth behind these letters. Certain other characters hear about the letters and are eager to get their hands on them for their own financial gain and will do so, by any means necessary, and so the chase begins.

Written by A S Byatt.

Dramatised by Timberlake Wertenbaker

The Young Victoria

Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong)

'Kensington System'

Zadok the Priest played.

Duchess of Kent - Victoria's mother?

Prince Albert liked Schubert?

Windosr Castle , june 18, 1837 - early morning - Victoria notified that she is Queen?

Baroness Lehzen

Swan SOng - Schubert

Thursday 22 December 2011

Inky Fool blog

Recondite - (of a subject or knowledge) Little known; abstruse: "recondite information"

Desert Island Discs Revisited

Robert Fisk

Songs
Benjamin Britten - War Requiem
June 18 1940 - Finest Hour speech
Pachelbel - Canon

Book - Mallory's Mote d'Arthur

'melifluous'

Montgomery's victory over Rommel - 1942 - El Alamein

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Book of the Week - The Etymologicon

Episode 2

'The author of the Inky Fool blog leads us on a fascinating journey tracing the connection between seemingly unrelated words and uncovers the links between the 'proof of a pudding', 'sausage-shaped poison', being hoist by a 'petard' and 'feisty heroines'.

The Etymologicon - by Mark Forsyth

broil

botulus = latin word for sausage

botulism = 'sausage disease' - origin

'hoist with his own petard' - Hamlet quote

Paper was invented in China?

Episode 3

Turkey is native to America

Guinea Pigs are found in Guyana, SA

'Magnolia Forests'

1560s - Turkey becomes standard Christmas meal?

Alcohol = origin of word is Arabic

This Sceptred Isle

Anna Massey narrates

35. Bad King John and the Loss of Normandy

Aged 42, Richard the lionheart dies, 1199

rejoined

'Arthur of Brittany'

34. Third Crusade and Death of the Lionheart

'Hubert Walter' - Archbishop of Cantebury

Saturday 17 December 2011

The National Gallery Podcast: Episode Fifty Four

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paolo-uccello-saint-george-and-the-dragon

'Miranda Hinkley: So the count was living in Austria, but he was actually of Polish origin and that’s where things got sticky, because the Nazis confiscated all of the artworks belonging to foreign nationals in Austria.
Caroline Smith: Yes, any work belonging to a foreign national was potentially subject to confiscation and so after the annexation of Austria in 1938, a significant number of works from the Lanckoroński collection were confiscated: nearly 1,700 works, including the Uccello.'

' Monet was difficult because they had to wait on one of his paintings, and eventually he said, ‘oh, I’ll call it “Impression: Sunrise”’ – although now we think it’s actually a sunset, but that’s another story, isn’t it? But that was the painting that of course attracted the critics and gave the movement its name. It broke the mould entirely, and so 15 April 1874 was a very important day for art history. - Hames Heard, Impressionism

Friday 16 December 2011

16 December 2011

'"The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more." – The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-Believer, 2007

Quotes

Hilaire Belloc’s ’Dedicatory Ode’

‘From quiet homes and first beginnings, out to the undiscovered ends, there’s nothing worth the wear of winning but laughter and the love of friends’

Plays

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pillowman#Act_I

Wednesday 14 December 2011

This Sceptred Isle - Ep 32

29 Dec 1170 - Becket murdered
July 6 1189 - Henry II dies

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Holmes

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sign_of_the_Four/Chapter_11

Monday 12 December 2011

M83 - Midnight City

http://ilovem83.com/videos/midnight-city/

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828 - 1882)

Algernon Swinburne
Bocca Baciata (1859) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/desperateromantics/paintings/bocca_baciata.shtml
Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah (1855) - http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=12805&searchid=9580&tabview=subject
Holy Grail
Il Ramoscello (The Twig) (1865)
Joan of Arc - http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/cockerell/directorcollector/pre-raphaelites.html (Rosetti's last painting) - 'Found on the artist's easel upon his death in 1882, Joan of Arc was acquired by Charles Fairfax Murray.'
La Belle Mano (1875) - http://www.delart.org/collections/preraph/la_bella_mano.html
La Donna della Finestra (1879)
La Ghirlandata
Lady Lilith (1866-68) (altered 1872-73) - http://www.delart.org/collections/preraph/lady_lilith.html
Mary Nazarene - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rossetti-mary-nazarene-n02860
May Morris
Proserpine - (Proserpine = Persephone) - http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=12804&tabview=image
Study for the Blessed Damozel
The Beloved
The Bower Meadow
The Day Dream - http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/forms-of-verse-sonnet/
Water Willow (1871) -http://www.preraph.org/media/audio/56_22/03_Water_Willow.mp3

' Bocca baciata, described by Swinburne as ‘more stunning than can be decently expressed’ (Swinburne Letters, 1.27), marks a turning point in Rossetti's art, heralding the abandonment of his Pre-Raphaelite past.' - ODB - http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/lotw/1.html

John William Waterhouse (1849 - 1917)

After the Dance
Apollo and Daphne - JW Waterhouse http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/apollo-daphne-1908/
Camellias
Circe - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/circe-90979
Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus
Destiny - John William Waterhouse - http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/destiny-1900/
Diogenes of Sinope
Flora and the Zephyrs - http://preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com/2010/10/john-william-waterhouse-flora-and.html
Hylas and the Nymphs 1896 - JW Waterhouse ('The poet Ezra Pound referred to this painting as 'Foreboding in the Pool'' - from JW Waterhouse website.)
"I Am Half-Sick of Shadows," Said the Lady of Shalott
In the Peristyle - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/in-the-peristyle-90385
Juliet (AKA 'The Blue Necklace') 1898 - JW Waterhouse -http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/juliet-1898/
La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1893)
Miranda - JW Waterhouse - http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/miranda-1875/
Ophelia (1889) - http://preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com/2009/04/john-william-waterhouse-ophelia.html
Opelia (1894)
Portrait of the Artist's Wife - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/portrait-of-the-artists-wife-71878
Saint Eulalia - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01542, http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-eulalia-117689
Sleep and His Half-Brother Death - http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/sleep-half-brother-death-1874/
Study of a Female Figure with Rosary
The Bouquet (c1908) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-bouquet-14613, http://fag.looksystems.net/Collection/1000.18
The Lady of Shalott (1888) - http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=15984&searchid=9065&tabview=text
The Lady of Shalott - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-lady-of-shalott-14630, http://fag.looksystems.net/Collection/1923.15
The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot
The Magic Circle (1886) - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01572
The Necklace (1909)

The Orange Gatherers
The Shrinesolomon
The Siren (circa 1900)
Thisbe

Ulysses and The Sirens 1891 - JW Waterhouse - http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/ulysses-sirens-1891/
Undine
Vanity - http://www.leicestergalleries.com/19th-20th-century-paintings/d/vanity/11858
William Holman Hunt - Self-Portrait 1845

Sunday 27 November 2011

John Everett Millais (1829–1896)

A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge (1852)
An Idyll of 1745 (1884) - http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/exhibitions/childhood/idyll.asp - 'Such idealised views of children as paragons of innocence, truth and morality were common in Victorian art.'
Apple Blossoms
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
Bright Eyes - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/bright-eyes-107424
Bubbles - http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=7&id=299
Christ In His House In His Parents - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N03584
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Speedwell's Darling Blue - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/little-speedwells-darling-blue-102592
Mariana 1851 - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/T07553
Martyr of Solway - http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/exhibitions/faith/martyrofsolway.asp
Mercy: St Bartholomew's Day 1572 (1886) - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01510
Miss Eveleen Tennant 1874 - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05260
Meditation 1879 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/meditation-35598
Miss Anne Ryan - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N04536
Ophelia - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01506
Princess Elizabeth in Prison at St James's - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/princess-elizabeth-in-prison-at-st-jamess-12848
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury - http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw05583/Robert-Arthur-Talbot-Gascoyne-Cecil-3rd-Marquess-of-Salisbury?locid=35&wPage=1&rNo=24

Saint Stephen (1895) - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01563
Self-Portrait (1883) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/self-portrait-107423

Sisters

Sleeping

Sophie Gray 1857 - http://preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com/2011/02/john-everett-millais-sophie-gray-1857.html

Speak! Speak! (1895) - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01584

'The Black Brunswicker' (1860) - http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/blackbrunswicker.asp

The Bridesmaid- http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opacdirect/3637.html
The Convalescent (1875) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-convalescent-107425, http://www.aagm.co.uk/thecollections/objects/object/The-Convalescent
The Nest - http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/thenest.asp
The Order of Release, 1746 - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01657
The Princes in the Tower - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-princes-in-the-tower-12847
The Prosrcibed Royalist (Proscribed - Denounce or condemn, Forbid, esp. by law)
The Return of the Dove to the Ark
Vale of Rest, The - http://beta.tate.org.uk/art/work/N01507

Waking

William Ewart Gladstone (1879) - http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02538/William-Ewart-Gladstone?LinkID=mp01789&search=sas&sText=gladstone&role=sit&rNo=14

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Saint Cecilia - Nov 22 - Feast Day

Saint Cecilia - 1895 - John William Waterhouse
St Cecilia - Guido Reni - http://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/browse_title.php?id=F.1973.23.P
Saint Cecilia and an Angel - Giovanni Lanfranco - http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/caravaggio/fig7.htm
St Cecilia and the Angels - http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80869/oil-painting-st-cecilia-and-the-angels/
Saint Cecilia - Pietro da Cortona - http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/pietro-da-cortona-saint-cecilia
Saint Cecilia - Micael Von Coxcie
Saint Cecilia and the Angel - Carlo Saraceni
The Martyrdom of St Cecilia - Carlo Saraceni
Saint Cecilia - Richard Westall - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-cecilia-86716
Saint Cecilia - Edouard Veith - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-cecilia-29478
Saint Cecilia Playing the Organ - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-cecilia-playing-the-organ-101349 - Justus Sustermans (attributed to)

Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
W. H. Auden, Hymn to St. Cecilia

Saturday 17 September 2011

Shawshank Redemption - Soundtrack

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Shawshank-Redemption/dp/B002P6OFYY/ref=sr_1_2?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1316251588&sr=1-2

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Favourite Literary Characters

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-100-favourite-fictional-characters-as-chosen-by-100-literary-luminaries-526971.html

Monday 22 August 2011

Books

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300095067 - Rubens and England

Thursday 18 August 2011

Richard III

http://www.stageworkmckellen.com/

Dictionary of National Biographies

Blake

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2585?docPos=3

'[Catherine Blake] was the most important person in Blake's adult life, a constant companion, helpmate, and faithful believer in his genius. The couple had no children.'

Castlereagh

I met Murder on the way—
He had a mask like Castlereagh—.

Canning

'Although Canning was to disagree with Pitt's political strategy during the Addington ministry, the compact made between them in 1792 was broken only by Pitt's death in 1806, if then. Canning declared in 1812, ‘my political allegiance lies buried in his grave’ (Therry, 6.326), and claimed always to pursue the line that his mentor would have taken.'

Animus - Hostility or ill feeling.

'[Castlereagh] sent Canning a challenge to a duel. Canning, though he had asked for Castlereagh's removal, had certainly not been responsible for the shilly-shallying of Camden and Portland. But he felt he had to accept the challenge, despite having never fired a pistol in his life. He made his will and wrote a touching farewell letter to his wife. The duel was fought on Putney Heath on 21 September: Canning was wounded but survived. Those in the know criticized Castlereagh for unreasonable overreaction, but the fault was very generally believed to lie with Canning.'

Sir John Everett Millais

From 1852, when he showed Ophelia and A Huguenot, on St Bartholomew's day, refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing a Roman Catholic badge (priv. coll.) at the Royal Academy exhibition, Millais enjoyed increasing public and critical acclaim. With its touching subject of ill-fated lovers in a historical conflict, A Huguenot was especially popular, preparing the way for his election as an associate of the Royal Academy on 7 November 1853. He went on to paint several variations on the same general theme, including The Proscribed Royalist, 1651 (exh. RA, 1853; priv. coll.), The Order of Release, 1746 (exh. RA, 1853; Tate collection), and The Black Brunswicker (exh. RA, 1860; Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight). He also caught the popular imagination with a scene of a heroic fireman carrying children from a burning house, The Rescue (exh. RA, 1855; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne).

Duke of Wellington
Peevish - Easily irritated, esp. by unimportant things.
Peremptory - Not open to appeal or challenge; final
Obsolescent - Becoming obsolete

'Though neat and almost dandyish in his dress on formal occasions, Wellington remained spartan in his personal habits, frugal in his diet, and notoriously indifferent to the quality of the food and wine he consumed. Physically he was a trim but never a handsome man.'

'Besides these outward virtues were the more human and endearing aspects: his lack of conceit, his ability to reflect with humorous detachment on his astonishing life, and a fundamental simplicity which charmed his friends and disarmed his enemies.'

'If chance seemed to favour him, it was because he left so little to chance.'

Queen Anne

Reticence - reserve: the trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering anything more than necessary
Propitiate - win or regain the favor of (a god, spirit, or person) by doing something that pleases them.

Disraeli's Bicentennary

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/theme/92729?backToResults=list=yes|group=yes|feature=yes|aor=4|orderField=alpha
'successful oppositions win friends through leaving governments to make enemies.'

George IV

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10541?docPos=1

By Christopher Hibbert

'For the prince had fallen in love again and had made up his mind to marry the object of his passion, Mrs Maria Fitzherbert (1756–1837), a handsome, charming, and sedate Roman Catholic widow of twenty-eight, six years older than himself, who had fled to France after the prince had stabbed himself in a frenzied effort to prevent her doing so.'

'Eventually Princess Caroline decided to go to live abroad; but their difficult daughter, Princess Charlotte, talkative, hoydenish, and rather coarse, was left behind to worry him. '

(Hoydenish - used of girls; wild and boisterous)

'Ever since her arrival on the continent Caroline had been providing Europe with scandalous stories about her astonishingly imprudent behaviour; and her husband, who had employed agents to report upon her activities, had good grounds for supposing that she had committed adultery with her major-domo, Bartolomeo Bergami. His agents' reports were, therefore, sent by the king to parliament in the hope that the queen might not only be divorced but tried for high treason. But, since Bergami was Italian and not subject to English law, and since the alleged offences had not taken place in England, it was impossible to institute a trial for high treason; moreover, the king's own conduct had rendered an ecclesiastical divorce unobtainable. The only option was to introduce a bill of pains and penalties, a parliamentary method of punishing a person without resort to a trial in a court of law.

The proceedings in the House of Lords, which opened on 17 August 1820, did not go as well for the king as he had hoped.'

(http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw00036/The-Trial-of-Queen-Caroline-1820?LinkID=mp03045&role=sit&rNo=1)
'After George IV's death at Windsor on 26 June 1830 and his burial in St George's Chapel, Windsor, on 15 July, obituarists had little good to say of this ‘Leviathan of the haut ton’.'

'Very few of the king's contemporaries saw fit to give thanks for the treasures which had been bestowed upon the nation by this greatest royal patron since Charles I, and which were his true memorial.'

'[George IV] had bought fine works by Rembrandt and Rubens, Dou, Steen, and De Hooch, and had welcomed Canova to London and immediately commissioned sculptures from him; he had also commissioned paintings from almost every commendable British artist of the day, including Gainsborough and Reynolds, Stubbs and Beechey, Hoppner, Cosway, and Constable. '

'Yet, in the end, [Wellington] was forced to recognize that, tiresome and evasive as[George IV] was when political matters had to be discussed, the nation would always have cause to be grateful to a man who had been ‘a most magnificent patron of the arts in this country, and in the world’. '

Sunday 14 August 2011

John Quicy Adams

This is the last of Earth. I am content.' - John Quincy Adams

Music Videos

Thttp://www.keanemusic.com/video.php - Keane - Official Website

http://www.snowpatrol.com/player/default.aspx?meid=5425 - Snow Patrol - Official Website

Somewhere Only We Know , Everybody's Changing, Bedshaped - http://www.keanemusic.com/video.php

Yellow (audio), Warning Sign (audio), Fix You (video) - http://www.coldplay.com/recordings.php

What Must Be Done - Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - http://www.nickcaveandthebadseeds.com/music/what-must-be-done

Golden Skans - Klaxons - http://www.klaxons.net/video.php

This Is The Life - Amy MacDonald - http://www.amymacdonald.co.uk/gb/video/

Anti - D - Wombats - http://www.thewombats.co.uk/video,antid_6.htm

I'll Follow You Into The Dark - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePcHxFJIuU&ob=av3n

World Spins Madly On - The Weepies - http://www.theweepies.com/

Tokyo - Audio Player - Wombats - http://www.thewombats.co.uk/_popup/audio.aspx

Such Great Heights - The Postal Service - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wrsZog8qXg

Say You Don't Want It - One Night Only - http://www.onenightonlyonline.com/video

The Suburbs, Ready To Start - Arcade Fire - http://www.arcadefire.com/videos/

You Might Die Trying - Dave Matthews Band - http://www.davematthewsband.com/#/sounds

Fell In Love With A Girl - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM&feature=BFa&list=AVGxdCwVVULXcbkKTIFvzc_MGe9-XWi67k&index=3

We're Going To Be Friends - http://www.youtube.com/user/whitestripes#p/u/10/PKfD8d3XJok

Ready To Start - http://www.arcadefire.com/videos/

Mixed Tape - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdW48xSbb9s

Empire of the Sun Videos - http://www.walkingonadream.com/

Stolen - Dashboard Confessional - http://www.dashboardconfessional.com/player/default.aspx?meid=83

C0llide - Howie Day - http://howieday.com/2011/video/collide/#

Music Videos - Official

http://www.keanemusic.com/video.php - Keane - Official
http://www.snowpatrol.com/media/ - Snow Patrol - Official

Crack The Shutters - http://www.snowpatrol.com/player/default.aspx?meid=3250

Just Say Yes - http://www.snowpatrol.com/player/default.aspx?meid=5280

Friday 12 August 2011

Radio 4 Archives

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/08/some_summer_holiday_listening.html

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Disraeli and Gladstone

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/disraeli_benjamin.shtml - BBC Profile

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/disraeli_gladstone_01.shtml - Disraeli and Gladstone

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/gladstone_william_ewart.shtml = Gladstone

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10787?docPos=9 -

He maintained his diary daily and almost unbroken until 1894, then spasmodically until 29 December 1896 (about 25,200 entries). Its terse first entry established its usual format: lists of reading, correspondence, and activities both religious and secular, only exceptionally fleshed out with reflections or comments, and these usually telegraphic in form.

‘No, sir; if you please, we will not leave it yet’ -Gladstone

'I thrice kissed my Father's cheek & forehead before & after his death: the only kisses that I can remember’ -Gladstone

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36652?docPos=15 - Victoria

'From 1830 onwards the duchess and Conroy implemented what was termed the ‘Kensington system’. Their aim was to ensure that Victoria was totally dependent on them, and would not look to others for advice when she came to the throne. The duchess was appointed regent in the event of William IV dying before Victoria reached eighteen, and Conroy's aim was to get the princess to agree to appoint him her private secretary. There was thus a practical, political reason for keeping Victoria away from the court, where she might find other advisers, and away from society, in which she might find alternative sources of support. The Kensington system was, however, more than an exercise in ambition: the aim was to make Victoria herself popular and ensure the survival of the monarchy. The Britishness of her education and upbringing was to be stressed, while her youth and purity marked her out as the herald of a new future, distanced from the moral and political corruption of the British ancien régime.'

'In this they misread Victoria's character completely. Strong-willed, intelligent, emotionally sensitive, lonely, with a fierce temper kept firmly in check, the young Victoria had a deep sense of duty and obligation instilled in her by Lehzen, and also a profound sense of propriety.'

'King William IV survived for another month, before finally succumbing on 20 June 1837. Lord Conyngham (the lord chamberlain) and William Howley (the archbishop of Canterbury) were dispatched at once to Kensington Palace to bring the news to the new queen. Victoria was summoned from her bed by her mother at six in the morning to receive them, which she did ‘(only in my dressing gown), and alone’ (Girlhood, 1.196). That characteristic emphasis pointed to the total and immediate failure of the Kensington system as far as it concerned the ambitions of its progenitors: Conroy was immediately banished from the royal presence, and although the duchess was regularly called upon to attend her daughter in public, she was systematically excluded from all the new queen's decisions and counsels.'

'even when fully grown she was only 4 feet 11 inches tall'

Monday 8 August 2011

Shakespeare Poetry

Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/1999/03/pardon-me-thou-bleeding-piece-of-earth.html - Marc Antony

The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2004/04/quality-of-mercy-is-not-strain-william.html

Where the bee sucks - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/01/where-bee-sucks-william-shakespeare.html

The Tempest 2010 - movie

The Tempest - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Miranda_-_The_Tempest_JWW.jpg

Come, Night; Come, Romeo -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/10/come-night-come-romeo-william.html

Our revels now are ended -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/1999/06/our-revels-now-are-ended-william.html

Fear no more the heat o' the sun -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/07/fear-no-more-heat-o-sun-william.html - 'Death is not the thief of time, he is, instead, the purveyor of
eternal rest and quietude' - wondering minstrels

Sonnet 116 - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/03/let-me-not-to-marriage-of-true-minds.html

Sonnet 55 - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2004/12/not-marble-nor-gilded-monuments-sonnet.html
- http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/55.htm

6.htm

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow -- William Shakespeare

- http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/1999/10/to-morrow-and-to-morrow-and-to-morrow.html

Sonnet 33 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_33

Sonnet 21 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_21

Sonnet 27 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_27 - 'Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed'

Sonnet 29 -When In Disgrace With Fortune and Men's Eyes - http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/29.htm - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2005/05/when-in-disgrace-with-fortune-and-men.html

Sonnet 46 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_46 - 'Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war'

Sonnet 49 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_49 - 'Against that time, if ever that time come'

Sonnet 50 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_50 - 'How heavy do I journey on the way'

When that I was and a little tiny boy -- William Shakespeare -http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/1999/10/when-that-i-was-and-little-tiny-boy.html

Sonnet 14 - Not From The Stars Do I My Judgement Pluck http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/14.htm - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2001/06/not-from-stars-do-i-my-judgment-pluck.html

For Done Are Shakespeare's Days - http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/folio1.htm#Holland

Sonnet 153 - http://nfs.sparknotes.com/sonnets/sonnet_153.html - 'Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep.'
Sonnet 154 - http://nfs.sparknotes.com/sonnets/sonnet_154.html -'The little love-god lying once asleep'

Act 3, Scene 2 - Juliet
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd

King Richard II, Act 2 scene 1
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

Henry V
“I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’”

http://allpoetry.com/poem/8449723-The_Procreation_Sonnets__1_-_17_-by-William_Shakespeare - Procreation Sonnets

Pages

About Me

Thursday 29 December 2011

The Good Samaritan 1958 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-good-samaritan-64284

Sebastian 2004 -

Davies, Matt 1974

Girl in White -

Procter, Dod 1892–1972

Lieutenant Robert Haswell, RN 1746–1747

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Monday 26 December 2011

Sunday 25 December 2011

Friday 23 December 2011

Thursday 22 December 2011

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Saturday 17 December 2011

Friday 16 December 2011

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Monday 12 December 2011

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Sunday 27 November 2011

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Saturday 17 September 2011

Thursday 15 September 2011

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Monday 22 August 2011

Thursday 18 August 2011

Sunday 14 August 2011

Friday 12 August 2011

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Monday 8 August 2011

The Quality of Mercy is not Strain'd -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2004/04/quality-of-mercy-is-not-strain-william.html

Where the bee sucks - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/01/where-bee-sucks-william-shakespeare.html

Come, Night; Come, Romeo -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/10/come-night-come-romeo-william.html

Our revels now are ended -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/1999/06/our-revels-now-are-ended-william.html

Fear no more the heat o' the sun -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/07/fear-no-more-heat-o-sun-william.html - 'Death is not the thief of time, he is, instead, the purveyor of eternal rest and quietude' - wondering minstrels

Sonnet 6: Then Let Not Winter's Ragged Hand Deface - http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/6.htm

Fear no more the heat o' the sun -- William Shakespeare - http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2000/07/fear-no-more-heat-o-sun-william.html - 'Death is not the thief of time, he is, instead, the purveyor of
eternal rest and quietude' - wondering minstrels