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6 nations rugby 2014, what conclusions? 17 Mar 2014 11:40 PM (11 years ago)

The top European nation's rugby tournament of 2014, known as the 6 Nations Tournament, has just finished, with the final three games being played last Saturday (and I watched all three). With the Rugby World Cup coming up in the autumn of 2015, this is a good opportunity to look at the results and assess the current strengths and weaknesses of the top European rugby nations, whilst keeping an eye on the southern hemisphere nations that played test matches in Europe in November 2013 and which will play their own 4-nations tournament later this year. Even though each edition of the Rugby World Cup has had its share of surprises and upsets, the top teams have rarely failed totally, so, with some variations within the upper hiearchy, those teams that show well in the two major international tournaments that take place within 18 months of a world cup usually do well in the following edition of the most prestigious rugby event.

Ireland was the deserving winner of this 2014 European tournament, just a nose ahead of England. And this tournament victory provided a suitable send-off for their great centre back Brian O'Driscill, whose last internationla game this was. The only game that Ireland lost was a very tough game (in my opinion the best game of the whole tournament) that they lost by 3 points to England, but which was played on the English home ground of Twickenham, giving the home team an indisputed advantage in such a close game. Both these teams finished with 4 victories out of the 5 games played by each, but the Irish finished with a slightly better points balance (goal average if you prefer) than the English: 83 against 73. But I thought the Irish also deserved their overall tournament victory on account of the consistency of their play and their team discipline. Their only loss was in London, by just three points and that game could have gone to either team. Almost the same could be said of England, who also lost just one game, to France and in Paris, and then only by two points. But they were more frequently penalised overall than the Irish and their game, although it looked perhaps more adventurous, was also less well-oiled and solid that that of the Irish. But England are a younger team with quite a few new players on the side, so this may not be a handicap in the perspective of 2015.



Of the other teams, Wales, the reigning champions (they have won the last 2 editions of this tournament) played brilliantly on occasions, but more erratically than the top two teams. France was on the whole very disapponting, with the exception of 30 minutes of their game against England (which they manged to win) and their very good display against Ireland. They were lucky to win in Scotland, were not that impressive at home against Italy, the weakest side, and got well trounced by Wales in Cardiff. They finished in 4th place, which is about right for their current level. Italy and Scotland were clearly in another, lower league and took the last 2 places, with Italy trailing and losing all its games.



Before coming back to some other comments on the way these 6 teams played during this tournament and what this could signify for the future, particularly in the light of the World Cup next year, let's take a look at the latest world rankings, which are regularly established by the International Rugby Board on the basis of statistics drawn from international games. The top three teams are still from the Southern Hemisphere, with, in that order, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia. England is now a close fourth and could have taken third place had it won this 6 nations tournament. Ireland has moved up to fifth place, followed by Wales and France. So, at least according to the statistics, the world heirachy has been slightly shuffled in a minor key, but not exactly overthrown: the major Southern Hemishere nations still appear to be on top of the world or rugby, even if not all of them were present in the final stages of the last edition of the World Cup.





But here we should perhaps remember the words of Mark Twain (who attributed them to Benjamin Disraeli): "there are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics" The inference clearly being that the third of these categories is the worst. In any event, statistics are unable to reveal the tendencies as shown in recent games of international rugby. During the November test matches, both England and Ireland came very close to defeating the apparently invincible All Blacks, who had been beaten a year before by England. South Africa, although undoubtedly powerful and redoutable in a single game, looked solid but uncreative. Australia were clearly a notch below and could be regularly beaten by any of the top European nations. So the North/South gap could be closing, as the Irish played very well and the English, with a younger team that has finally found cohesion and resilience, looked more creative and dangerous than they have for a very long time. They must however sort out their discipline, as they give away too many penalties to win close matches against tighter teams.  

The next chapter, albeit in a minor key as this will be the end of  a long and tiring season for most top European players, will be written when the summer tours of Northern Hemisphere nations to the Southern Hemisphere take place in June. England will tour New Zealand, France go to Australia, Wales to South Africa and Ireland to Argentina.

Albrecht Dürer, landscapes and portraits 10 Mar 2014 1:40 AM (11 years ago)

It has been almost 2 months since I posted an article on this blog, so maybe a few regular readers have been wondering what on earth I have been up to. Too much else going on, mainly work, and so insufficient time to write about and find illustrations for several subjects that have occupied my mind recently. The 6 nations rugby tournament is in full swing here in Europe, but that is only part of the story and I will come to that subject when all five matches have been completed, in a week's time. So far, given the hammering the English cricket team took in Australia recently, that country can be proud of their rugby team who, so far, have looked the best of the lot, along with the Irish. Ireland is my favourite to win though, as their points average is way ahead of England's, and they should beat France in Paris next weekend. Yet both these teams, together with France (who have not looked good at all but have managed to scrape 3 narrow and lucky victories) are contenders for final victory in the tournament, each having lost just one game. All this has nothing to do with today's subject, which is the work of that very great German Renaissance artist, Albrecht Dürer. Would Dürer have played rugby? 

This article will be followed by another, concerning other aspects of this fascinating artist's work

I made the trip from Paris to Frankfurt-am-Main one weekend in January this year especially to see the very considerable collection of Dürer's work that had been put together by that city's Städel Museum. Frankfurt, almost totally destroyed in the second world war, is not an attractive city today as it must have been before in its medieval-based organisation. But it is a great city for museums, as they are all lined up alongside the river and one can hop from one to another in no time at all.

I have always admired Dürer's work, mostly at a distance as it were, via illustrations, and in any case sporadically, like when I have come across the occasional work in a museum somewhere. These have been paintings, engravings or drawings, or even other objects since Dürer was as eclectic as he was prolific. And clearly very successful, business-wise, but more on that in the second article perhaps. So this was the first time that I had seen a large number of all kinds of his work together, and very impressive it was too.



One of Dürer's first known paintings (above) is a watercolour which dates from 1489. It appears both slightly gauche and surprisingly modern. One has to bear in mind that his first trade was that of his father's: a gold and silversmith, which probably goes some way to explaining his quite extraordinary precision and sureness as an engraver. Although afterwards he did not paint many landscapes (at least that have survived) Dürer did, as most of his Renaissance contemporaries, use landscape extensively in the backgrounds of many of his religious subjects. But there are a few others and they clearly show, at least to me, something that foreshadows later German romanticism, if one may allow me this anchronism!





This painting, made near his home town of Nuremberg, includes the same mill as in the first painting shown above, but Dürer has moved on in his manner and preoccupations. This work is more about mood and less about precise topography. But if landscape played a minor part in Dürer's work, portraits, as singular works and not just a part of epic or religious paintings, were very significant, 



By the time the last two watercolour landscapes shown above had been painted, Dürer was already a master of the portrait in oils: in this case the self-portrait. Symbolism was very often an element that told a story in portraits at this time, and this one is no exception: the artist holds in his right hand a sprig of sea-holly, whose German name signifies "man's fidelity". In addition the plant was also considered to have aphrodisiac qualities and some commentators therefore consider that this painting was intended as a gift for his future wife, Agnes Frey, whom he married the following year.

Bracque again 15 Jan 2014 4:32 AM (11 years ago)

Yes, I have to return to this fantastic restrospective exhibition that has recently closed in Paris of the work of Braque. I may well do so again, such was the density and interest of this show.

I mentioned in my previous article on Georges Braque that his work probably started to change again after the shock caused by the First World War. But this is not all that evident in the chronology of the show, since the almost completely cubist period, in one form or another, actually lasted until well into the 1930's, as the image below shows. He clearly had to pick up where he left off in 1914, but changes there were.

This painting, called "The musician", dates from 1917-18, but it already shows a significant change in the preoccupations of Braque's work as it reintroduces colour as a major element of the composition. Now let's look back to 1907 and see how things have turned around with regard to Braque's relationship with colour, as in this painting of a woman's back.



Colour is clearly a major ingredient of the impact of this work which dates from the early years of the 20th century and Bracque's "fauvist" period, in which form and shape is also of growing importance, as is shown in this painting. Just a year later, form, and its breaking down into geometrical components, had taken over from colour, the use of which which had become very much more subdued, as in the painting below, of a similar subject.



As I said in the first article, one can then clearly trace the decline of the role of colour in the hierarchy of Braque's interests, and the corresponding rise of the analysis of form and the creation of a type of synthetic vision that we call, for want of a better word, cubism.



Possible inspirations for this line of work can be seen in architectural situations like this one, from the Normandy village called Varangeville where Braque had a studio.



A beginning of what was to be gradual abandonement of what Bracque possibly saw as a dead-end in the pursuit of cubist exploration shows in the painting above, dating from 1939, and which, while continuing the use of many subject matters that had served him throughout the cubist phase (musicians and their instruments for example, and here we should remember that Bracque was himself a good musician), is also in a much freeer, more playful style and includes the use of colour.



Later still-lifes and studio interior paintings take this playfulness much further, moving away from the systematic approach of cubism. This painting also shows that black was always an important colour with Bracque, at least after the fauvist period. And he never seemd to find the sky again (see the previous article). The still life below, which dates from 1942, shows yet another shift towards greater simplification of forms and composition in a way that parallels that of Matisse, for instance, and which introduces his final period of work.






Parallels between Bracque and Picasso have often been drawn. Whilst the two had an intense relationship of exchanges during the early cubist period, Bracque had perhaps a more studious and less spontaneous appraoch to panting then Picasso, as show in this painting of the artist and his model, a theme also much used by Picasso in a different vein.

More to come on Bracque probably, as and when I find suitable images to illustrate it. But we will also move to Dürer shortly, as I recently saw a fantastic exhibition of this great Grema,n artist's work In Franfurt am Main.

Bracque, an overlooked master 7 Jan 2014 10:10 AM (11 years ago)

Fashion, stupidity and the superfluous 4 Jan 2014 4:25 AM (11 years ago)

I suppose that one could say that the first two are synonymous, to a point.The third being a frequent corollary and companion to both. The reason for raising this topic is a recent short article that I noticed in today's edition of the weekend magazine supplément of what I consider to be regularly the best French daily newspaper, Le Monde. However this supplement, recently renamed M, has unfortunately become pretty much a fashion catalogue, the majority of it's pages, formely full of in-depth articles, now being polluted with totally uninteresting stuff about of "trends", "fashion icons" and other superflous crap. The newspaper istelf continues to be good, but this is pure decadence, and uninteresting decadence at that.

a past cover of the M magazine, which I consider to be unworthy of its parent newspaper Le Monde


Flicking through the pages of this latest edition, which is usually the most I feel inclined to do with this thing before stuffing it in the waste bin, I noticed a short piece on the recent rush by fashion victims in the USA to purchase the latest model of sneakers produced by the Nike brand under the Air Jordan logo. Put on sale on December 21st, this shoe apparently caused some idiots to queue up all night and then fight for places in the queue. I don't know what the price of this useless object is, and I don't care, but I find something quite revolting about people going to such extremes for soemthing so totally superfluous and, probably, over-priced. There may be good reasons for standing in queues, like getting food when you are starving, but doing so (and all night!) for something you don't need seems the ultimate in consumerism gone mad.



former basket player Michael Jordan with one of the shoes made by Nike that use his name and, probably, bring him even more money


Why does this get my goat? Maybe I just felt like a little rant. Who knows? I know that this is not the most serious sign of madness in this world, but it is definitely one of them and I hate it.

Building stone walls and paving 31 Dec 2013 4:02 AM (11 years ago)

There is for me something deeply satisfying in the work involved in building stone walls, stone paths and paved areas. Such work, which can be physically demanding on account of the weight and abrasive nature of the items as well as the repetition of tasks, combines the physical and the useful with the aesthetic, like indeed many forms of craftsmanship. I have, in the past, practiced the trade of carpenter/cabinet-maker and I would say the same of that too. I don't think of the end products of either of these crafts as works of art. They are made by hands and tools and the human mind, but, above all, they are functional. Art is, by definition, useless, and so is perhaps essential in other ways.

The photographs in this article show some of the stone work I currently have in progress in Gascony. All of it uses local materials, much found, some purchased. Very little mortar (lime and sand, with an occasional dab of white cement) has beeen used, except for some of the bottom and top layers, and the angle stones. As the walls have been back-filled with rubble and small stones for extra drainage, and then with earth, this dry stone technique should enable surplus water to find its way out without creating undue pressure. At least that is what I hope! 




I cannot pretend to be an expert in building rough stone walls, and I make many mistakes for sure, but I do apply myself when I work at this and try to do a good job. So far, the ones I have built seem to be holding up alright, but time will tell I suppose. We are definitely not in the pyramid league here! This project revolves around a two layer stone terrace with a mostly stone (I will be replacing the non-stone parts with stone steps) stairway leading up 17 steps and linking the top level to the bottom via an intermediary terrace which I have also paved. Since these pictures were taken, I have started to extend the bottom layer to the left of the staircase. The system will be similar on each side, with some changes in levels to adapt to the ground.




As well as some of the steps (temporary), the pathway that leads from the house to this staircase is made of river-bed pebbles that come from the Garonne river, nearby (see first photograph below), which are also used, alternately with irregular off-cut slabs salvaged from a local stone-cutter's yard, to pave the middle terrace part (bottom two photographs below).











Plantings are under way on the top terrace, and also in beds set into the middle level. At the bottom level lies a wide, sloping and grassed field with a lake at the bottom of it, about 100 metres from the bottom wall and, in between, some fruit trees that I have planted and which will probably be increasing in numbers.

This article also shows, below, some photographs of stone paving in other places that I have seen and thought to photograph. These will probably provide inspiration for future work.

Valloton again 13 Dec 2013 6:05 AM (11 years ago)

There are so many more paintings (and engravings) that warrant commentary in the Felix Valloton exhibition that is currently showing at the Grand Palais in Paris that I cannot resist going back for a second look.

This painter clearly had a very solid classical training, togther with a taste for composition and craftsmanship that he never really lost. This shows in many of his works such as these two:

But there is also a more personal twist to his vision that begins to emerge in the second of the above two paintings, and which becomes increasingly obvious as time goes by. This is sometimes accompanied by clear quotations from, or references to, paintings by artists that he clearly admired, such as Ingres or Manet. Manet's Olympia, which caused such a scnadal when it was first shown, is right here in Valloton's version, and this is followed by another painting with similar inspiration that is given a marvellous touch of additional ambiguity by the cigarette in the mouth of the black woman on the right hand side.






As well as Manet, Valloton's was clearly inspired by Ingres, and this shows in the way he portrayed the female body in many other paintings, even if I found many of these hovering between a form of academicism and something far more synthetic but equally rigid in a way. Nevertheless, they have their qualities...





As far as his paintings of women are concerned, I prefer the ones where composition and colour take on a different and more important role and the painting works perhaps better as a formal whole, the body being an essential part but not the sole or, in some cases, the dominant theme. In other words, when Valloton steps back a bit from his understandable obessesion with feminine pulchritude. In the two following paintings he also shows his mastery of drawing, brilliantly combining form and line.

Felix Valloton, paintings and engravings 7 Dec 2013 10:07 AM (11 years ago)

Dominio IV, an exemplary small Oregon winery 5 Dec 2013 5:16 AM (11 years ago)

During the summer of 2012 I was spending a couple of weeks on holiday along the north-western coastal and forest areas of the USA. I had more or less resolved not to visit any wineries, and therefore that I would probably not be talking much about the wines of Northern California and Oregon on this blog, although I did relate some of my travel experiences. And I pretty much kept to this resolve, at least until now, some 15 months later. In a general sense these things just creep up on you and move you to investigate something and get back into what is, after all, as much a passion as it is a job for me. Then, sometimes also, they linger in your mind for quite a while until you finally decide to do something about what you have experienced. Like a dream that you cannot quite decypher the next day but which hangs around in your head like late morning mist in a valley. So here it is...

I had not visited Oregon before, so was naturally curious at some point to try a few local wines. Production of wine in this state (which is surprisingly only the 4th largest producer amongst the states of the USofA) began quite recently, in the late 1960's or early 1970's. Since then the learning curve has been pretty steep, at least if the winery that I visited during my trip is anything to go by. Some of the wines that I tried during this 2 week journey, by the glass, in restaurants and wine bars here, were indifferent, but the majority were good to very good, and one, tasted one evening, just sung out to me. I was staying in the small town of McMinnville, south of Portland, and which seems to have the making of being the wine capital of the Willamette Valley. This long valley, bordered by hills, is Oregon's principal wine region and is home to the majority of plantings of its star grape variety, Pinot Noir. 



The Oregon Hotel is the old hotel (they say "historic" locally, but then, in the western US, anything over 50 years old is considered to be historical) of this town and is part of the impressive empire of the McMenamin brothers, who are brewers, wine producers, hoteliers and restaurateurs, their empire spreading through the states of Oregon and Washington. Their hotels are fun, volontarily off-beat, and full of mainly 1970's musical nostalgia and loads of historical references to the past lives of their buildings that have been quite creatively restored. But their restaurants make the bad mistake of serving only their beers, which are good enough, and only (at least by the glass) their own wines, which are quite underwhelming. So we ate out that night, and luckily so! There was not a lot of choice in McMinnville, so I was happy to find a decent selection of wines (of Italian and Oregon origin) by the glass in Nick's Italian Café, right by the hotel. Michael, the helpful and knowledgeable wine waiter there, poured me three Oregon Pinot Noirs, and the second one just hit the spot for me. It was soft at first, then firming up on the palate, with lovely fruit and balance. It had that velvety texture of the finest Pinots and tasted better at each sip. I loved it from the start and it kept growing on me as I gradually emptied the glass, checking it against the other two which were very decent wines. The producer was intriguingly called Dominio IV and this particular Pinot, one of a range, was poetically named "Rain on Leaves". As I was later to discover, the wine-maker and co-owner, Patrick Reuter, is also a poet. It was from the 2007 vintage, which, according to waiter, sorted out the men from the boys in terms of local wine production. So I asked about this producer and it turned out that the winery was in town and I was able, then and there, to make an appointement to meet Reuter next morning, to talk with him and taste some more wines.




Reuter, with 3 partners, started his operation some 10 years previously. He had studied with his wife, a viticulturist, at Davies. They have travelled the wine world quite widely, including a harvest stint with the late Denis Mortet and another with Armand Rousseau in Burgundy's Côte de Nuits. Hard to find better pinot credentials, if you are looking for that sort of thing! 

Like viticulture, the word Dominio comes from way back in the past. The Spanish use the word to mean land or territory or dominion, whereas the Romans have a secondary meaning of a feast or banquet. Thus the word takes on a sense of being a feast from the land. Dom is also of the sun as in Domingo (Sunday). The number four represents four people, four seasons, four varieties of the grape and four quadrants of the Dominio symbol, the labyrinth. Four is also the number of the earth (for whom I am unsure). Ok, so perhaps we are getting a little esoteric here, and, as regular readers may be aware, I am not particularly into mumbo-jumbo (1). What is in a name after all? Well maybe quite a lot, especially when you learn that Patrick Reuter also writes poetry.



The short story of my visit to the Dominio IV facities, which are installed in a converted industrial barn in the suburbs of this small town, is that I found the wines quite fantastic and Patrick Reuter delightful, open, relaxed and coherent in his approach. Most of their small production is produced from purchased grapes, essentially pinot noirs from single plots and with the clone identified on the labels. But I also tasted one of the best viogniers I have ever had from outside the Rhône Valley. It just sung with freshness and intense fruit flavours and the grapes hailed from vines higher up into the mountains that separate Oregon from California. I don't know whether they ripen there every year, but this one was fantastic. Dominio IV also own their own vineyard in the north-eastern, much hotter part of the state that lies close to the border with Washington, along the Columbia River east of Portland. Here they grow Syrah and Tempranillo and the wines I tasted were intensely good. They are into biodynamics, for those interested in esoteric practices, but Patrick seemed very down to earth and did not bore me with any planetary visions. Reuter is clearly pragmatic and keeps his base wines for a future sparkling cuvée, called Flora, in recycled Coca-Cola aluminium drums (see below).



I highly recommended the wines of Dominio IV to anyone who is in Oregon, and they are well worth looking for anyone elsewhere in the USA. If any ever find their way into France I will be a customer for sure.

For more information, take a look at their website:
http://www.dominiowines.com

Drink well....
(photos by David Cobbold except for the one of the label)

(1).footnote (thanks to Wikipedia): Mumbo jumbo, or mumbo-jumbo, is an English phrase or expression that denotes a confusing or meaningless subject. It is often used as humorous expression of criticism of middle-management and civil service non-speak, and of belief in practices based on superstition, rituals intending to cause confusion or languages that the speaker does not understand. The phrase probably originated from the Mandingo name Maamajomboo, a masked dancer that took part in religious ceremonies.Mungo Park's travel journal, Travels in the Interior of Africa (1795) describes 'Mumbo Jumbo' as a character, complete with "masquerade habit", that Mandinka males would dress up in order to resolve domestic disputes. In the 18th century mumbo jumbo referred to a West African god.

Richard Ford's novel Canada 4 Dec 2013 2:21 AM (11 years ago)

Eric Bibb, the perfect folk-blues? 25 Nov 2013 1:33 AM (11 years ago)

I have been to two of Eric Bibb's concerts, each time within the context of the Marciac Jazz Festival, which takes place each year in the South-West of France late July and early August. Marciac is one of the many bastides (14th century "new-towns" in France) that are built on an orthogonal plan and feature a central square surrounded by arcades. They were initially conceived as a way of fixing populations disturbed by the ravages of wars. The one below is actually from another town, Fleurance, as the Marciac square, during the festival, is now packed full of tents (too many of them) sellling mostly crap, but occasionally also some good jazz CDs.




Both of Bibb's concerts have entranced and moved me and I would say that he is currently the best proponent of what is sometimes called "folk-blues". I suppose this means blues that uses, partly or entirely, an acoustic guitar as the major instrument, and whose general accompaniement is not heavily electrified. But also a repertoire that calls, at least partially, on many long-standing blues or folk classics. Bibb equally composes himself and has also played, such as in the first concert I heard, with musicians from other countries and cultures, such as the Malien Habib Koité.



There is something pure and elegant about Bibb's style as a guitar player (also banjo occasionally), and his voice is beautiful, both soft and deep. He also has a very extensive repertoire that constantly evolves. Below are a few shots takn with my phone during the 2013 Marciac concert, which was quite fantastic. Initially this was a double-bill event, with Taj Mahal to follow, but unfortunately a storm came just as Taj Mahal was starting his first set and we had to evacuate the marquee and that was the end of that. But I went away feeling that here was a case of the pupil surpassing the master, as Mahal seemed a bit tired that night.

Christmas Cake and a recipe 20 Nov 2013 12:08 PM (11 years ago)

I have not been a grerat fan of Christmas, at least since I was a child when it had some magic. If one talks of the food side of things, Christmas cakes usually look as silly as this. Yet preparing one can be a long and complex process that used to be started around this time of the year, in order to allow the stuff to mature before being consumed a month or so later. The same went for Christmas pudding, which uses a similar base but is even heavier on the stomach, if that can be imagined.

I can remember, when at my first boarding school in England, all the boys in the school (there were 70 of us) queuing up into the school kitchen for the priviledge of strirring, with a huge wooden spoon and in a gigantic stoneware basin, the ingredients for one or other of these ritualised stomach bombs.

Here is a recipe that sheds another light on the process (you will need some mastery of the English language and of the effects of alcohol to be able to follow it)



Christmas Cake Recipe 

Ingredients:
A cup of waterA cup of sugar
4 large brown eggs
two cups of dried fruit
a tablespoon of salt
a cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
a bottle of whisky

1). Sample the whisky for quality
2). Take a large bowl. Check the whisky again to be sure that the quality is still of the highest order, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat.
3). Turn on the electric mixer, beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar and beat all again.
4). Make sure that the whisky is still ok. Cry another tup.
5). Turn off the mixall. Beat two leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Mix on the turner. If the fired druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loosh with a drewscriver.
6). Sample the whisky to check for tonsisticity. Nest, sift two cups of salty. Throw one away. Or something. Who cares anyway?
7). Scheck the visky
8). Now sift most of the menon's juice and strain your nuts
9 ? Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or somehting. Whatever.
10 (or more). Grease your oven. Burn the cake tin to 360 degree. Remembering to beat off the turner. Throw the bowl out the window.
Then whack the whusky again and go to bed.


Thanks to New Zealand for this fine recipe (and for the All Blacks)

Work in progress: notes on the process of painting 10 Nov 2013 9:33 AM (11 years ago)

I only manage to find time to paint during about a month in the summer, which, as far as I can see, is insufficient to progress very much in the process, or indeed in terms of the results. But I do have a few ideas about the way I am able to deal with this process of painting what may appear to be more or less simple figurative landscapes.

The painting above, which I began last summer in Gascony, is an example of work-in-progress, since it has in fact changed a bit since I took this photograph of it. As the picture below shows, it started out as work done in front of the landscape that inspired it. But its evolution, like that of the human eye and memory, has also taken into account several other parameters other than the purely formal and technical obstacles that present themselves during the painting process. The way the painting then develops, once away from the initial subject (or even in front of it for that matter), can vary a lot. One may choose to reduce distance and give greater importance to areas by enlarging them, or more impact by simplifying them. Colours will be adjusted of even totally changed for pictorial reasons. In fact the painting itself as a subject/object gradually takes over and dictates its own terms, becoming more important to me that the scene initially looked at.



As David Hockney has clearly shown in his work on the way the human eye and brain operate, including in his polaroid landscapes, one "sees" an object, and especially a complex one such as a landscape, from more than one point of view at a time. Not only is one's immediate vision binocular, with two slightly different perspectives, but also many particular details, such as the texture of a freshly-cut wheat field, will catch the eye and stimulate the imagination so that it takes on a greater importance than will be shown up in a monocular photograph of the landscape in question, more or less framed identically to the painting, as can be seen below. And of course, during the period during which one stands in front of a subject, the number of perspectives will be multiplied by the number of different head positions (unless one paints with one's head held in a vice), not to mention the role of visual memory and personal inclination. 



In fact, apart from particular approaches such as hyperrealistic work, I can see no point in attempting to reproduce "exactly" what one sees. The process that links the eye to the brain and one's emotions is a complex one that cannot be resumed by such an approach. Yet the beauty that one sees and feels in a landscape pushes one to some degree of realism. Making a landscape painting uses many elements from the scene seen, but also incorporates elements taken from similar or related scenes, or details enlarged beyond their true proportions. Here is a detail from the above landscape that has taken on a greater place in the painting than in the photograph of the same landscape.



In the process of modifying colours, shapes and textures as the painting develops, things seen elsewhere during the same period are often incorporated or used, when it becomes necessary to saturate colours further, enhance a detail or flatten perspectives, for example. The aim being to produce some form of credible synthesis of a landscape, but definitely not a reproduction of the one initially witnessed. And this painting can of course be entirely composed from fragments observed. Here are a few photographs taken near to the initial scene, of different views and at different times of day, all of which have some bearing, consciously or not, on the painting that is under way.

Ducati Hyperstrada: test ride of bike number 17 8 Nov 2013 10:12 PM (11 years ago)

I attempted to explain here why, and under what circumstances, I acquired this, my seventeenth slice of two-wheeled heaven. It has been about a month now and so it is high time to tell you more about how my almost new Ducati Hyperstrada (don't like the name very much, any more than the looks, but what can you do?) feels when ridden under different conditions of route and weather. I have now put almost 3,000 additional kilometers on the clock and have ridden it on B-roads, A-roads and motorways, all for some distances, and all with great enjoyment, even if motorways are always boring on a bike.



First and above all I am very happy with my choice, which I guess is the main thing. The engine is far more flexible than that of my previous regular mount, a KTM Duke 690, which i names "little big bike". It is also naturally faster (although who really needs more speed under today's road-riding conditions and restrictions), much smoother (vibrations from a V-twin being automatically less intrusive than from a single) and more confortable on long rides. And I like the sound it makes too! What makes this happen? Well, first of all the fabulous 821 cc water-cooled V-twin engine which has all the power you can use on roads, plus a lot of character and good torque. This classes as a mid-sized engine by current standards, but, when I started riding bikes, it would have been in the big category. In any event, it delivers the goods and has more than enough power for what one needs on the road. I have found overtaking easy and predictable, and the power/weight ratio just right. Pulling away from lights is also a joy and one just has to watch for unwanted wheelies, especially when in the "sport" mode on the computer that controls power delivery and the electronic safety devices, to which I will return. It also sounds good with the standard silencer, which will save me quite a few euros on a replacement article. Now I don't like making noise in towns, but accelerating out of bends in the open coountry and hearing that cross between a bark and a growl under my seat just puts a smile on my face. We stay kids somewhere I suppose.



Coming back to the flexibility issue, although it is smaller, this motor is far better in this respect than my previous Ducati, a 2005 Multistrada 1000dS. It will pull away from below 2000 rpm without complaint. Just don't expect it to be on full song, which happens at above 4000 rpm, and with a vengeance! This makes for slowing down coming into towns and villages when riding the smaller roads far more relaxing (and quieter for the neighbours). Speaking of noise, being water cooled, and the clutch an oil-bath affair, there is much less clunking and clattering from down below than used to be the case with Ducatis. In fact practically none. The machine manages to be fierce, when needed, and yet civilised at the same time, which I reckon is quite a performance. Some critics have commented on the gearbox being slow, or imprecise, or something. Maybe press test bikes get hammered before they are properly run in, but the gearbox on my bike is smooth and sure. Finding neutral is easy and helped by a green warning light, and I think that I have only missed one gear change, through my own fault, in those 2800 kms. If you pressure and time your change-ups right, the next cog just slots in smoothly and there is practically no break in the forward impetus.



Chassis is up to normal Ducati standards, which means very high. I have not found its limts on the road yet but then I have been riding on autumn roads, with wet and leaves and all that, and I have yet to really push things. If you have the bags on and load 'em properly with light stuff, they do not affect handling much but need to be watched for their width when slipping through small gaps. As to the handling, maybe I'll do a track day or two in the spring to find ou more. Brakes are very good. If you adjust the lever right to suit the way you brake with the front, you can stop on a pin and there is ABS to help out. I read in one report that there was too much travel on the front brake lever before the brakes hit. Did the guy not find the easy-to-operate adjustment dial on the lever? This sorts that one out instantly. And I find the rear brake a useful addition to stabilise you coming into bends, as it is progressive in its action. The Pirelli Scorpion tyres work ok, even if they are not as good as Michelin Power Pilots in the wet. Haven't pushed them much yet though. 



The controls are a bit of a mixed bag and perhaps not one of the bike's best aspects. The indicator switch is a bit iffy (ie you are never quite sure if you have pushed it far enough), you can confuse the horn button for the lower of the two computer switches (yes, this machine is sophisticated too) in the dark, and I found myself hitting the high beam switch, strangely placed behind the left hand grip, without meaning to, again in the dark and with winter gloves on. The afore-mentioned computer gives one all the information required, with the exception of gear engaged and state of fuel tank, and the pre-programmed performance and safety parameters have 3 positions : sport, touring and urban. The latter reduces power by 25% and gives you maximum intervention of the traction control and ABS. I only use it in town when it is wet. Touring is fine for touring and for everyday use. Sport makes the whole thing feel sharper and reduces both the degree of traction control and of ABS intervention. Within each setting one can fiddle about with the levels of all the parameters, and even cancel all forms of this intervention, but I haven't got that far yet. Remember I am used to bikes with little or no electronic assistance!



This "touring" version of the Hypermotard has been well adapted to the more aged or long-distance rider (or both) with a couple of useful features allowing for mixed usage between fun and touring. A more confortable seat with a big dent in it to keep seat to road distance reasonable, a slightly raised handlebar position through longer clamps, a small windscreen and bags that slot on or off (in theory, as we shall see). I measure about 6ft (1m80) and have no probelm with the seat height as it allows me to have both soles of my boots on the ground when stopped. But this dip in the rider's part of the seat, although it slots one into a nice little niche, can be a pain on long distance or when riding fast on variable roads as it effectively prevents one from shifting weight forwards or backwards. I may therefore try another seat at some time. The riding position is otherwise fine and makes for a reasonable compromise for touring. The bars have enough width (and hand protectors that incorporate the front indicators) and are at the right height. The screen is quite small but offers some protection, though I am about to fit the higher version, which is an optional accessory. As to the bags, the removal mechanism seems to have stuck on one of mine, so it stays on until I can find a solution. Useful for storing a helmet and a U-bar I suppose, but a bit ungainly for slipping through traffic. These bags have plenty of capacity and are made of a semi-rigid fabric that necessitates additional water-proof inner bags (supplied) that reduce the capacity somewhat but do their job water-wise if you close them properly, as I found out when riding for 2 hours under a downpour. These are clearly by the same manufacturer as the ones I had on my KTM, but are much bigger. You can lock the zips that close them with a little padlock (supplied). The tool kit is minimalist and far below KTM standards for example. One has to buy an additional special spanner in order to adjust the chain, not to mention a torque wrench!



The fuel tank apparently holds 16 litres. There is no fuel guage, but I find that the reserve light comes on after about 220 kms, when riding at an average fuel consumption rate of around 4,5 litres per 100 kms. This should mean that I have consumed about 10 litres, which would signify that the reserve actually holds 6 litres instead of the 4 announced in the manuel. In any event, there must be enough for another 100 kms after the orange light comes on. I will only test this the day I am carrying a can with me though. So we can safely count on a range of above 250 kms, which is fine for me as you always need to stretch your legs after that distance anyway. Ducati have considerably improved the intervals between servicing on their recent models. I used to have to take my Multistradas in every 5,000 kms and this ends up being costly. The manuel to the Hyperstrada tells me that I can now wait for 15,000 kms which is good news. I will have to do the chain before then however.

I will shortly fit (or have fitted) a higher screen, some heated grips and a much needed tank bag. Then we'll be ready to brave the winter together, not that I ride long distances in the winter. Will keep you up with future developments.

Ride safely and have fun...

Light Years, by James Salter 17 Oct 2013 4:37 AM (11 years ago)

This is the cover of the Penguin Classics edition of James Salter's masterpiece (yes, I can and will call it that), Light Years. It was first published in 1975 and has perhaps had a kind of "slow-burner" career ever since, gaining Salter the often voiced reputation of a "writer"s writer", whatever that may mean. I am not a writer (at least I don't publish litterature), yet I consider this to be one of the very best novels that I have read in a long time. So where does this leave us? Well let's get back to the essence, which is of course the book itself.



Light Years, whose French title, "Un Bonheur Parfait" (A Perfect Happiness") is, as so often, a bit offkey and in fact adds an ironical touch that I cannot really detect in the book itself or in its original title, is a book about the gradual decline and dissolution of a relationship, in this case a marital one. It is totally masterly in its incredibly evocative and often slightly allusory descriptions, but it is also quite relentless in the development of its story as the faults, weaknesses and self-delusions of the protagonists wear through the Fitzgerald-like veneer of their apparent happiness. I have read one other book by Salter so far (and I won't be stopping there), which is a cruel tail of an highly erotic but otherwise empty relationship, and is called A Sport and a Pastime. Salter's biographical details as a former US airforce fighter-pilot (in the Korean war) has been well documented and seem to me irrelevant to judgements on his writing, which is simply brilliant.


Salter is a writing craftsman, in the best sense of that term, but is also someone who tackles, head-on but with immense subtlety, the facts of life. Nothing lasts, but, while things do do, life is worth living. Yet one should always beware of appearances that can lull one into taking things for granted. Salter mixes factual descriptions, almost matter-of-fact in their manner, with hugely evocative phrases that just resound inside the reader.I find myself frequently thinking "yes, thats just how it is", whilst discovering a new angle on events, scenes and situations that have a taste of familiarity about them. There is a strange and fascinating mixture of down-to-earth reality and a dream-lile atmosphere through which the protagonists wander and which, in my opinion, is echoed and introduced by the fact that their first names are rather strange. In Light Years, the otherwise fairly ordinary central couple are named Viri (him) and Nedra (her). Not exactly your everyday all-american names for an apparently ordinary middle-class couple (he an architect, she not working) living in a well-to-do suburb north of New York. It is as if their frst names were symbols of their aspirations to something exceptional and unusual, wheras their lives are really quite banal. Viri and Nedra live, in a sense, in a dream world along with their names that come from who-knows-where. The apparent mist of happiness in which they bask gradually dissipates as they age. And yet they continue to dream, and live, and love somehow outside of themselves. To the point where the reader never really knows who they are. They remain absent presences all through the book.

Yes, the story is sad, in a sense. But it is also filled with beauty and the constant reminder that life can be very full, and that emptiness, delusions and missed opportunities are also part of that story.

What makes a wine "great"? Barolo Rocche della Annunziata 1999, from Paolo Scavino 14 Oct 2013 5:36 AM (11 years ago)

Churchill, a biography by Sebastian Haffner 12 Oct 2013 7:16 AM (11 years ago)

I must assume that everybody knows who was Winston Churchill, or at least has an image of the public figue and his war-time legend. Sebastian Haffner is far less well-known, but his short and to-the-point biography of a complex personnage whose life spanned almost a century makes fascinating reading that sheds many a light on little known aspects of the recent history of the western world. And which, without indulging in any of the distasteful "intimate details" side of some modern biographies, also reveals the many contradictions and failures in the behaviour and career of Churchill, without taking away from his unique achievements.

My first knowledge of the existence of Haffner (whose real name was Raimund Pretzel, but I will explain this later) came through a radio programme in France that spoke in glowing terms of a book of his called, in its French edition, Journal d'un Allemand, but whose rather different English title is Defying Hitler: A Memoir. I read this book some years ago and it is to me the most brilliant and lucid account of the mechanisms, both social, economic, political and psychological, behind the seemingly inevitable rise to power of Hitler and his gang. Haffner (or rather Pretzel) was a civil servant in the German legislature who, seeing and not accepting the rise of nazism, fled his country in the 1930's and came to England. Alhtough not directly threatened (all things are relative of course and political opponents were either imprisoned or physically eliminated) in Germany as he was not Jewish, he decided that he could do more to hinder Hitler outside his country and he became active in England as a writer, translator and expert on matters German, trying to influence British politicians as to the dangers presented by nazism. He was convinced not only that Hitler was unhinged (he referred to him as "the crank"), but saw also that he was extremely dangerous. And we should not forget, in this context, the strong movement in Britain at that time towards pacifism, appeasement and even,, from some quarters, collaboration with the nazis. In order to protect his family that had stayed in Germany, Pretzel changed his name to Sebastian (the second name of J.S. Bach) Haffner (Mozart's 35th symphony).Yes, nobody has yet fully understood quite how so much savagery could come from a culture that has spawned so rich a cultural universe of music, philosophy, art and litterature. His book on this period of German history was not published in his lifetime but was found in his desk by his inheritors who rightly published it.



Haffner's biography of Winston Churchill, a worthy descendant of John Churchill who had been elevated to the rank of Duke of Marlborough in the late 17th century for feats of arms and diplomacy against the Franco-Bavarian alliance during the wars of the Spanish succession, is a masterpiece of concision and is written with the swiftness of a good journalist who has the advantage of an external oberserver's eye, yet one who also knows a lot of the background. Among the suprises for me in this book were Churchill's changing political party allegiances. He started as Conservative, then became a radical Liberal and member of one of Lloyd George's governmants before returning, shortly before the Second World War to the Conservative party who had for long hated him as a renegate. Churchill was very much a politcal maverick, often hot-headed, rarely calculating, and fairly oblivious of what others thought of him. Having hated school and been a dunce in just about every subject except for English, he turned to the army for his career, and also discovered the joys of writing. He was, above and before all, a warrior and an opportunist, without a trace of self-interest. And a considerable writer. 

Another surprise to me in Haffner's account was Chuchill's total lucidity about Soviet Russia's intentions and his strategy to prevent these from becoming reality after the war, as well as his total incapacity to realise this strategy due to England's relative weakness when faced with both America and Russia. And his clear will to sell the English economy and Empire in exchange for American aid and thus save the war. It was the only way to resist Hitler, and he took it without hesitation. But then mathematics and monetary calculation were not Chruchill's forte. His stubborness and detremination to prove his point led him to some decisions that were dire for many people. Just ask the Australian and New Zealanders whom he sent to a certain death at Gallipoli in the First World War, or the Polish whom he abandoned in the next edition. Haffner also hints clearly at the variable nature of Churchill's moods. He would possibly be diagnosed these days as a bipolar, as he oscillated between intense high-energy elation and periods when what Churchill himself described as "the black dog" descended on him.

Since Haffner respectfully avoids prying into Churchill's private life, we learn little about his relationship with his wife Clementine, who very likely was responsible for keeping him on the rails at many times. I can well remember being struck and moved by listening to several of their letters, exchanged during the war years, read on French radio (the excellent France Culture) not long ago when they were published. Their extraordinary mixture of tenderness and open discussion of strategic matters as if these were everyday events like walking the dog was very impressive, but Haffner, unfortunately, did not have access to this material when he wrote his book.

I can strongly recommend this book to anyone vaguely interested in the man Churchill, or in world or British politics of the first half of the 20th century.

One lost, one found: introducing bike number 17, a Ducati Hyperstrada 821 30 Sep 2013 2:29 AM (11 years ago)

This summer, on the way back from a week-long bike tour that included southern Corsica (which was great by the way), we awoke early in our hotel in Toulon, having gotten off the ferry around midnight, to find that my KTM Duke was no longer attached to its pole in the bike park outside our hotel. Travelers be warned : Toulon (and probably Marseille as well) are definitely not safe places for bikes and the thieves seem to be well equipped. After doing the rounds of theft declaration at the local police station, the assistance company did their job and found us a rental car to take us and our stuff home. Then started a series of boring formalities and a 21 day wait for the insurance company to reimburse me so that I could buy another everyday ride.

What was I going to get? What would be the ideal bike for the money I had available? I put some of the time to use by reading up all sorts of magazines and tests related on the web, trawling the web for recent second-hand versions of the machines that I thought might best fit my job description, and trundled around a few dealers to look, drool and discuss things. The brief was basically this: a bike that was fun to ride, handling well, with an engine having plenty of punch and character well integrated to an ensemble that was capable of occasionally also taking two people and some luggage on longish trips in almost acceptable comfort. No, we don't need armchairs yet! 


A big sports/trail bike?  They are certainly now sophisticated, fast and comfortable, but they are also ugly, mostly too heavy, expensive and their bulkiness just puts me off. I drooled a bit over the new Norton but it is fiendishly expensive and I am not convinced about its luggage capacity. I was tempted by the BMW 1200 R, a sensible choice and by all accounts a very good machine, but a bit pricey, especially with the necessary accessories, and even for a second-hand one. Another KTM? Yes, very possibly but not the 690 Duke again, which, although a lot of fun to ride solo, has an annoying lack of flexibility below 3500 rpm, vibrates quite a lot and can sound a bit tinny. Its carrying capacity is also limited and anyway I wanted to try something else. The twin KTMs, especially the 990, seemed like good options and KTM are one of the few manufacturers who deliver a decent tool kit. Not a sufficient reason I know, but it is worth mentioning. I was also very tempted by a Moto Guzzi 1200 sport, which can do bags easily and has character. I got as far as finding a couple of recent second handers at the right price but the weight of the thing made me hesitate a bit. I do adhere to Colin Chapman's adage of "add lightness". I looked at Triumphs Speed and Street Triples, which clearly fit the fun part of my brief but the luggage problem was not going to be solved there.



When I sold my Ducati Multistrada (the old model) in 2012, after a long series of mechanical problems, I had sworn not to return to Ducati in a hurry. Yet the Italian firm have recently brought out a version of the Hypermotard equipped with side panniers, a screen and a few other mods to make the thing a but more civilized for ageing bikers. And I read here an excellent series of filmed long-term test reviews of this machine in the web version of Motor Cycle News by someone who clearly has similar requirements to myself. This bike, which uses the 821 water-cooled Testastratta engine, seemed to fit the bill and, although I rather dislike the looks of it (that horrible duck bill!), I decided to have a try on one. I found a recent demo model at the Paris dealers that was just about in my price range and went for a test ride. Although the weather was wet and I couldn't quite figure out how to use the computer that allows you to programme engine performance, throttle response, brake locking and wheel spin (can you believe these modern machines and their electronics?) the engine felt really nice, surprisingly flexible and with plenty of grunt. And the thing felt light and handled like a Ducati should but with some added comfort. In a sense, it reminded me of the spirit of the old version of the Multistrada, with the advantages of a more modern mechanical set-up and, hopefully, greater reliability (Audi, the new owners, must surely be keeping an eye on this aspect at least). So, after some modest haggling, I bought the thing, then and there. It only had 1600 kilometers on the clock and had been properly run-in.




I took final delivery last week and rode it down from Paris to Burgundy and back on an often wet 700 kilometer spin last weekend. It's clearly a very good bike and seems surprisingly versatile. The engine programme can be set to urban (which reduces power from 105 to 75 bhp), touring (full power but less rapid throttle response), or sport. And within these basic settings one can play with the degrees of ABS intervention and track control. I have yet to get the full measure of all of this technology but it seems convincing in its effects and the traction control seems useful in the rain. 



The engine is the star element for me on this machine. It is far smoother and more flexible than the KTM 690 (to be expected, moving from a single to a twin, but it is also quite a bit more flexible than was my old Multistrada), and it has terrific mid-range grunt and a pleasantly gruff bark when accelerating. It will easily lift the front wheel in almost any gear if you allow it. I have yet to test it at the top end since I am finishing off the running-in. The handling seems fine, neutral and steady and it also feels light and stable at low speeds. Useful in city traffic. Brakes are good too. The riding position is pretty comfortable on a long trip, although the dent in the seat, while holding you well, prevents you from shifting your butt back for time to time. The screen protects you a bit from the breeze and the rain, but a taller one could be an option. The control buttons take a bit of getting used to and will not be too easy to manage with winter gloves on. 


I don't like the digital display system much, it is fussy and not too legible. It also lacks a gear indicator and a fuel gauge, although the reserve seems quite generous at about 4 litres, which, at legal speeds and out of town could give one close on 100 kilometers to come once the light goes on. And there is a distance counter that kicks it at that point. I found fuel consumption very reasonable on this trip at 4,5 litres per 100 kms, but then I was not revving it above 7,000 rpm.  Also on the practical side, it's been a while since I had a bike fitted with a centre stand and I found this useful, especially for parking with bags and when refueling. It will obviously make chain cleaning and oiling much easier too. The side bags are easily fitted and removed and can be locked  and the small package rack behind the seat is useful to tie on a kit bag. There is not real space for a U-lock and the tool kit is skimpy. However there are four fabric loops hidden under the seat and, when pulled out, one can slip in a U-lock which is then well held on the passenger seat when riding solo. A makeshift solution, so I guess I will have to make up a bracket to fit behid one of the side pannier supports. Why can't manufacturers deal with this issue?

Setting your password 27 Sep 2013 8:45 AM (11 years ago)

The beauties of Granada (1/2) 25 Sep 2013 6:37 AM (11 years ago)

No, this article is NOT about Andalusian ladies!

I recently spent a couple of days in this Spanish city, partly working, partly just wandering about. Granada is the capital of the eponymous province within the region of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is certainly most famous for having been the last capital of the moorish colony in Spain, under the Almohad dynasty that was finally defeated by the catholic armies in successive battles as they gradually advanced south between 1212 and 1248. Anyone who doubts (and current affairs sadly lead to such doubts) the extent of refinement to which some forms of islamic culture have engendered, would be well advised to visit the Alhambra, not to mention reading the works of such as Averroes, which is the latinized name for the philosopher, poet, mathematician, astronomer, etc., whose full name was Abu'l-Walid Muhammad ibn Rouchd of Cordoba, usually shortened to Ibn Rouchd.





The best-known visible legacy of this cultural high-point of muslim culture is of course the Alhambra palace, a place of immense refinement and beauty which I had visited a few years ago during a bike trip to the region. This time I did not revisit the Alhambra as such visits need to be booked ahead and queued for. And I dislike queuing intensely. Anyway there is so much else to enjoy and admire in Granada and this is my subject here.





Granada is also an significant student city in Spain and this is apparent from the high proportion of younger people walking or bicycling around the streets. There must be almost as many students as there are tapas bars here. I will return to the latter subject in a while. Geographically speaking, Granada lies in the north-eastern corner of the region of Andalusia, at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains where one can ski in the winter. The water resources that result from this are what made the construction and plantings of the Alhambra possible, as Granada is built, at an altitude of just over 700 meters, at a point where three rivers flowing from the much higher Sierra Nevada range converge: the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil.

The Sorrows of an American, by Siri Hustvedt 24 Sep 2013 5:40 AM (11 years ago)

I think that I may well have written before about one of Siri Hustvedt's books and probably it was What I loved, which was marvelous and deeply moving. I have just finished, and for the second time, this book called "The Sorrows of an American".

The fact that I was able to read the book twice within a couple of years and still consider it to be a constant journey of discovery speaks well enough of the density and richness of this book, as of the quality of the writing.

Hustvedt is clearly deeply fascinated by and knowledgeable about many things to do with the brain and its complex workings, as well as the part played by memory and various obsessions on our conscious and unconscious existences.

As a woman writer, she is also able to place herself in the shoes of a male narrator without any difficulty, and she also navigates constantly and interestingly between reality and fantasy, past and present, drama and comedy. The book and its subject matter is intense and yet s easy and fascinating to read. It is often beautiful and moving.

The commentary that can just be seen on my photograph of the cover, by Salman Rushdie, is totally warranted, so, to make it easier for you, I will reproduce it here : "Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom". I agree with him.

Go for this...

The tortoise and the hare 20 Sep 2013 9:31 AM (11 years ago)

Like the tortoise and the hare analogy? This one's for you.....
So take it easy on that road?

Suzuki café racer, aka number 16, aka "Silver Bullet" 16 Sep 2013 12:04 AM (11 years ago)

I have always admired the massive, sculptural quality of the oil-cooled Suzuki engines, whether in their 750, 1100 or other formats. I acquired this bike in June 2013 from the modified and collector Suzuki GSX specialist in the Paris area, KMP (http://www.kmp.fr). 
This KMP Suzuki GSXR thus became the 16th machine I have owned at various points in time, hence the number 16 in the title.

It has since returned to KMP for some minor modifications, including carburetors and a different rev-counter/speedometer, which is now sheltered behind a small headlamp cowling that probably still needs a small cut-out to be made to improve visibility of the dial when riding as I am sat a bit further forward when ensconced in the machine than this photo shows. Anyway, progress being made in this project that started when I saw a picture of this machine in a slightly different state in the excellent French magazine Café Racer.
www.cafe-racer.fr

So I gave this silver bullet a spin yesterday and am beginning to like it. It feels business-like, solid and chunky. It looks good for sure, makes all the right noises (quite a lot of noise actually and I will need earplugs for longer trips for sure), but it will take a while for me to adjust to the crouched riding position, the energy required to lean it over when cornering (even with the right pressure in the tyres it takes quite an effort to make it turn) and the very full but linear delivery of the engine, which has a 1340cc capacity, Yoshimura cams, and just seems to go and go without any gap in the power-band. I am not used to four-cylinder bikes and keep finding myself searching for an inexistent 6th gear as the pitch of the engine rises!

So here are the full specs:

The basis is a 1990 GSX-R (frame and engine)
Front fork is from a more recent GSX-R (I think)
Engine, initially of 1100cc capacity, is now of 1340cc and has Yoshimura cams fitted
Carbs are from a Suzuki Bandit 1200
Wheels and discs are from a Ducati 1000
Rear brake is Brembo
Front brakes use Ducati discs, Billet calipers and a Nissin master-cylinder

Why did God create the Earth? 28 Jul 2013 10:08 AM (11 years ago)

Ok, so it had best be known, in case that is not already quite obvious, that I am not in any way a believer in concepts, things or people (please cross out the terms that are irrelevant to you, as nobody has yet managed to define to which category "God" belongs: possibly "he", "she" or "it" is a category to themselves) that are qualified by some as a deity or deities. 

But I grew up in a culture that did tend to believe in such things, and which maintains the rather strange visual embodiment of this concept as an oldish man with a beard, often to be found lurking behind a cloud, and sometimes preceded by rays of sun slanting down towards this planet to which us humans (at least most of us) are confined.

So all this is to explain why I find this image somewhat familiar and the message funny.

The corollary to which is of course the following question: "do penguins have knees?". And this can lead to other questions of that ilk, such as "and if they do, what do they use them for?"

(With all due thanks to those who introduced me to this image and transferred it to my computer, in particular my niece Arabella and one of her daughters, Marina)

My 16th bike is a modified Suzuki GSXR 1100 20 Jul 2013 9:15 AM (11 years ago)

You never thought that I would talk about Japanese bikes on this site? Wrong, dead wrong as I am far from sectarian in bike-likes, even though I may have periodic preferences.  Anything with wheels can be fun, and anything with 2 wheels and a motor is usually plenty of fun. I have total respect for any motorbike, even if I would not want to own many of them. Way back in the past I did once own a Honda 175 twin and, for running around streets in London near where I once lived and playing kiddies in paddocks, a 50cc Monkey Bike.

I have admired many Japanese motorcycles and Japan is clearly one of the all-time most creative and prolific producers of bikes. I hold fond memories of watching Mike the Bike howling between the curbs, walls and hedges on the Isle of Man circuit on Honda 6's and 4's. And some legendary machines I would really like to own, like the Honda RW30.

But, amongst the many more accessible, mass-produced machines that have made Japanese motorcycles dominate in just about every category of motorized 2 wheelers, there is one engine and frame that have always appeared to me as a sculptural work of motorcycle art, albeit of the art brut kind: the Suzuki GSXR of the air and oil-cooled era. The rectangular section aluminium frame was quite revolutionary when introduced in about 1984 and these bikes, initially of 750cc before also coming out in a big-bore 1100 cc version, were at the time the fastest on the road and were directly derived from the Suzuki endurance racers that were at that time cleaning up on the circuits.

Not being a purist or a "collector" of original machines that have to have everything in place just as it came out of the crate, I like to see some improvements and/or modifications made to most bikes. This is about two things. Firstly actual improvements and adaptations to one's current usage, since, after all, many items or pieces of technology have improved over that past decades (just think of tyres, to take just one example). But also the idea that a motorbike is such a personal (and, agreed, egotistical) piece of machinery that one may as well go to it and make it more distinctively individual by doing (or, in my case, mostly having done) various modifications for aesthetic and technical reasons. Customizing is the name of that game, I suppose.

A while ago I saw in the excellent French magazine Café Racer (www.cafe-racer.fr) an article on a workshop out in the eastern suburbs of Paris called KMP (and here is their web site, in French:www.kmp.fr‎) which specializes mainly in GSXRs of various eras, and their rebuilding and transformation into customized machines of various types. And the prices they were asking for these renovated and modified machines looked pretty reasonable, given the work that had presumably gone into them. So, after a few months secret longing and some saving-up, I finally took the plunge and went to see them with firmish intentions. Very friendly and informative was Christophe, the boss, and he showed me a bike that I had in fact spotted in the Cafe Racer article. I remembered liking its sober grey livery with a see-through section in the tank to check fuel level, its polished frame and spoked wheels. It still needed a bit of work and I asked for a few other mods also, so I finally got it back home about 6 weeks later.





What's it like to ride? Bit of a pig in traffic, added to which the carburetors need a bit of sorting still as it misfires between 4 and 5,000 rpm, which is just what you don't need when accelerating! The braking is great and it feels like a rail in bends although it is pretty physical to turn. The tiny electronic rev-counter/ digital speedo doesn't work but I'm having that changed for something better and more legible. Not sure I will do 500 kms per day on this but it's a blast to ride. The Hindle silencers say they are homologated, but I'm not sure by whom or for what. Maybe the man was called Hindle Homologated? As it is impossible to see what speed you're actually doing, I tried playing it by ear but soon realized that I had no chance there as I am far too used to singles or twins that rev much lower. Instead I constantly find myself feeling for higher gears that seem to be missing from the gearbox. I suppose I will get used to this motor running at way above 8,000 rpm or whatever.

The bike is currently back with KMP for the necessary adjustments. Will tell you more soon. I suspect it has been overbored to about 1240cc. She looks the part anyway, so I am pleased with my piece of sculpture. Can my driver's licence resist though?


Ride well and safely.