Wonderful Italy. Nice few days spent around Bologna and at a conference. Productive and enjoyable.
Italy is rather photogenic. Bologna especially so - full of ancient history, beautiful old architecture, and fascination at every turn.
More postcards on my flickr site.
The victim of a witch-hunt during the McCarthy era in the United States, Chaplin was already in his 60s when, in 1953, he chose to live in exile in Switzerland with his family. But the artist did not retire. He continued to make films, composed the musical scores to accompany re-releases of his silent movies and wrote his autobiography.
The Manoir de Ban is now destined to become the "Charlie Chaplin Heritage Site". A museum devoted to the film pioneer and the early days of Hollywood, the site will also include a movie theatre, an outdoor stage and a film school. "There had been plans for a museum in London and for one in Hollywood," says Chaplin, the driving force behind the Swiss proposal. "So when we came up with the idea for the Manoir de Ban, we had to persuade everyone that Switzerland was the best place - in the house where he spent the last 25 years of his life."
(swissinfo)
The statue in the above photograph is in Leicester Square, London (in front of the Swiss Centre)
Burgers, sausages and steak at the allotments.
More pics at my flickr site (click through this photograph)
Small people in Floral Street
India's 60th Anniversary demands to be celebrated. It's an amazing country with an amazing people whose influence stretches far beyond its borders. I have never visited, but it's on my list. Anyway, congratulations to India and also Pakistan, although that country's success is arguably a little more distant at present.
India women statistics: http://www.indiawomenstat.com/
Social watch India - key indicators: http://www.socialwatch.org/en/fichasPais/97.html
India's population timebomb: http://www.wakeupcall.org/employment/population_bomb.php
Sad that I only got into Elliott Smith after he died, but I think his songwriting is awesome. He was born today (August 6th) in 1969 in Nebraska but was best known as being from Portland, Oregon. He died in Los Angeles in 2003, apparently stabbing himself with a steak knife at his home in Echo Park following an argument with his girlfriend. He had given up alcohol, caffeine, red meat and refined sugar and his longtime (sometimes abused) regimen of psychological medication after his 34th birthday, on this day in 2003.
You can see some of the beauty in Elliott's cool gentle personal songs in this video of the song Angeles, See Video
and here's a great song, although I guess it turned out to be somewhat ironic.
From Brooklyn to Brighton,
Not a spam blog, just tired of words and blogging pictures and sounds for the moment. Gee whiz.
