June and a time of midsummer. I celebrate, but know the sun is now moving away from the earth – or at least my part of it – or at least the earth from the sun – or my part of it.

 

 

 

Anyone who reads this Blog knows that the Lavender bush is a summer high for me – always full of bees as, but only at the right moment when the nectar is richest!!

 

 

I go to London for three art exhibitions:

First, art from Siena in the C14, including various artifacts (weaving, rugs, wall hangings). Amazing patterns:

 

 

 

 

 

The second one is of the painter Ithell Colquhoun – the St Ives expo has transferred to London:

 

 

Readers will know I have done quite a lot of work on her:

http://www.michaelgrenfell.co.uk/ithell-colquhoun-painter-surrealist-feminist-magician/

 

Thirdly, an exhibition by the artist Edward Burra – good in a German expressionist sort of way but doomy:

 

 

Good series on BBC TV about Britain in the last decades of the twentieth century – Shifty: rather explains a lot. Many of my friends outside of the UK have a very positive image of England. This programme explains some of the underlying trends. It is made by Adam Curtis – with contributions from Massive Attack.

 

 

Sadly, one of my all time heroes died this month – Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

 

 

Again, I have done a lot of work on these, at one point arguing that ‘the sea’ – surf – should be read as a kind of metaphor for Heideggerian  dasein. One of many pertinent tracks is Surfs Up

 

 

http://www.michaelgrenfell.co.uk/bourdieu/bourdieu-and-the-beach-boys/ 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyOYQ8qfFng&list=RDtyOYQ8qfFng&start_radio=1

 

It is a struggle to pick a favouriite but this track comes very close. However, my final choice has to be the Our Prayer/ Cabinessence sequence on their 20/ 20 LP. When I first heard this, it blew my mind – I still cannot imagine another ‘pop’ band making such a thing!!!

 

Our prayer

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X76ejh4EIV4&list=RDX76ejh4EIV4&start_radio=1

 

Cabinessence

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_kZR1kPug&list=RDWA_kZR1kPug&start_radio=1

 

More wanderings in the West Country and to a favourite corner – Bathampton:

 

 

 

I have been reading transcripts of Gurdjieff’s sessions in the 1940s:

 

 

I have been listening to a Playlist of Meditation music:

 

 

And so, to Argentina and Brazil and Musica en Moviemisnto:

 

 

 

 

 

As I begin the month, I am still in Milan.

 

We hire an apartment near the centre and explore:

 

 

The Cathedral

 

 

Thirsty work.

 

 

So, to Lake Como:

 

 

 

 

And, Town:

 

 

Soon I am back in the UK and visiting Ryland Abbey:

 

 

 

Home and time to get the garden going for the summer.

 

 

 

It is the time for English Asparagus:

 

 

Some spectacular flowers:

 

 

 

I go to Cornwall, where the countryside is full of pink campions and Foxgloves:

 

 

 

Gwithian has to be my favourite stop-off point:

 

 

 

I am with the Pathways to the Past Team, exploring pre-historic monuments:

 

 

Wonders a plenty. One needs to know. For example, we might walk through a field with a small hill, but it turns out to be a 5000 year old barrow!!

 

 

Men-an-Tol – an enigmatic favourite:

 

 

Then, the story of Courtyard Round Houses: apparently, we are about the only site for this phenomena. The actual round structures are still there:

 

 

 

Magnificent views from Carn Brea:

 

 

 

Plenty of typical Cornish food at hand:

 

 

Some Church exploring as well: typical Cornish Church:

 

 

Sancreed: here the present day next to a painting of the same entrance by a favourite John Miller:

 

 

 

The churchyard actually has 5 medieval Cornish crosses in it:

 

 

 

 

 

Love these Cornish road signs:

 

 

To Truro, and a visit to the newly opened Art Museum for an exhibition by Kurt Jackson. A good selection of his works in various forms:

 

 

 

Also, some old friends like this one – the Signal – by Norman Garstin. Did a lot of work on it once upon a time in a previous lifetime.

 

 

I have been listening to the latest by Salif Keita: surprising since he was supposed to be retiring.  Retirement!!.

I love his music. The competition is great, but he must be my favourite.

Ironically, he is a lousy performer.

I fee the same about Van Morrison.

 

 

 

Time to check out the programme for this year’s Proms: much on offer with a slight tone of predictability:

 

 

 

I have been reading Techno-feudalism by Yanis Varoufakis. A fascinating and important book.

 

 

Also, reading Stephan Hoeller’s The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons of the Dead. Actually, a re-read – I read it first in the 80s and it made a big impression on me. I am re-reading a lot of Gnostic material at the moment – new readings as well.

 

 

So, concluding with a sunset from Gwithian:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is upon us and the energy is everywhere. Grasses and weeds and flowers.

 

My Buddha almost submerged in the new season.

 

 

 

And the apple blossom is out:

 

 

A trip to Bristol and then one of my favourite places – Little Solsbury Hill near Bath:

 

 

 

 

Nearby Bathford has a beautiful view of it:

 

 

 

A new Pomera Press book – Hyparxic Dialogues by Pablo Mandel. I wrote a Foreword/ Preface for it:

 

 

https://www.pomera.co.uk/new-releases-and-editions-2024/

 

It is Easter: The Resurrection by William Blake:

 

 

 

Soon, I am travelling to Milan, Italy:

 

 

 

The house and view:

 

 

 

My room:

 

 

 

The Dining Room:

 

 

The ‘Ballroom’

 

 

Kitchen:

 

 

 

House Rules – These have become challenged of late. So much so that a working group has formed to review them:

 

 

Our Concert:

 

 

 

The Church where we play:

 

 

 

The team:

 

 

 

Next, I am travelling to Milan…..

 

    —— More next month.

 

 

Along the way, I have been reading transcripts of Gurdjieff’s meeting 1941 – 1946:

 

 

 

Music, I have been getting into Charles Ives again:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March, so it is Spring and Pancake day.

 

 

 

A yearly treat!!

 

And, the garden is suitably decorated. Daffodils and the ‘holy’ Magnolia in bloom.

 

 

 

 

Still, Winter lingers with dramatic skies near where I live.

 

 

 

 

I enter into a correspondence with a friend on Tarot cards. This takes me back to past studies and issues in archetypal psychology. So, Jung is not far away:

 

 

 

There is also an eclipse of the sun as well – a partial eclipse. For once, the English weather behaves and I get some photos:

 

 

 

An interesting Japanese version of Shakespeare’s ‘As you Like it’. A frivolous play in many ways, but containing some noble and telling eulogies. Like the ‘seven ages of man’ and ‘All the world’s a stage…’. As always, there are phrases that have entered the English language: ‘no rhyme or reason’, for example.

 

 

A new book on the production of Bourdieu’s translation of Panofsky’s Gothic Architecture. A seminal text for Bourdieu and one that allowed him to stabilize his ‘Field Theory’. The new book is a piece of ‘intellectual archeology’, setting out their correspondence and, amongst other things, stressing Bourdieu’s interest in arts. The book I did with Cheryl Hardy on Bourdieu and Art is still unique:

 

 

 

A new Musica en Moviemiento AAD begins:

 

 

https://musicaenmovimiento.com/

 

I also attend a lecture on the Druids by Ronald Hutton. As so often with his work, he is at pains to suggest they did not really exists/ were a late invention.

Blake struggled with the concept: anyone pagan was too close to the material world for him – only the spiritual counted!!

 

A new DVD: the collected Thunderbirds series. My favourite.

 

 

Surely the zenith of the Gerry Anderson work.

 

I have been listening to Kathryn Tickell, and her wondrous Northumbrian pipes:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD9z7Qk-ESE

 

 

I have been reading a book by Mark Fisher on the ‘Dark Enlightenment’: Cyber meets Gothic, meets Alt Right, meets Deleuze and Baudrillard meets Misinformation, meets racism, antidemocratic, meets oligarchies and corporate capitalist accelerationism!! It is not that there is a conspiracy, but that the conspiracy is that there is no conspiracy. And, there is not as a linear socio-political movement/ direction. Rather a set of systems are set up – rhizomes – that do not really connect or acknowledge each other but together constitute an ecology. And, one that is dangerous and pernicious – but no-one is really ‘in charge’ so to speak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the month has been a short one.

 

Still, it marked a transition from winter-winter to winter spring: to say that there is a soupcon of a hint of suggestion that lighter days are not far away.

 

My garden feels it:

 

 

 

A special time in terms of celestial movements. In that for a few days, all the planets were lined up in the sky at once, Theory:

 

 

 

In practice, harder to see, but Venus and Jupiter were bright as can be:

 

 

 

Other planets in between were fainter.

 

The two end points: live.

 

IMG_5404

 

Apparently, it will not happen for another 40 years!!

 

I have always been interested in Fashion; so, happy to see a show of the work of Vivienne Westwood – doyenne of the punk movement in the 1970s but then a lively, and creative fashion designer with a mixture of styles in provocative clothing. Her clothes and accessories range everywhere:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An unusual evening for me, I go to see a chat with Geoff Hurst at the local theater.

 

He was a player in the football club, West Ham United – London. When I was a child, I remember playing with a friend one Saturday and coming in just at the point where England and Germany begin extra time in the 1966 World Cup Final, as they were drawing 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes. I was not that interested in football, but I did sit and watch for 30 mins. Significantly, Hurst scored 3 goals in that game: two in extra time. One of those was famously in the very final seconds of the game: the commentator, Kenneth Wolstenholme shouts, ‘they are on the pitch’, referring to the fans, ‘they think it is all over’….and then Hurst scores: ‘It is now!!!!’

Anyway, 58 years later, I relive this event from my childhood. Geoff turns out to be an ordinary guy: lots of stories and anecdotes, of course, and then Q&A from a devoted audience. The sort of questions that begin, ‘Do you think that it was right that Martin Peters was dropped before the 1963 FA Cup Final?’

The whole event was interesting to me: besides Hurst, the audience, etc. Also, there was an auction of signed football jerseys. These went from anything between 250 GBP – 750.00. Depending on their rarity.

When I was a child, I had a photo of the winning team. And, I diligently sent it around to each player to get them to autograph it – Alan Ball, Bobby and Jack Charlton, Roger Hunt, Geoff Hurst, Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore until I had just one left to get – Nobby Styles. I remember thinking whether or not it was worth the risk. I did have 10 of the players after all. I could have kept it with one short. But, I went for it and gambled and sent it off to Manchester United for Nobby to sign. It never came back. A lesson learn that day…..

 

I have been reading Goethe’s elective affinities, probably the best novel of this polymath.

 

 

The title comes from physics to describe exothermic chemical reactions when an ion replaces another.

However, the novel is about a young couple and their niece and the way they react to a visitor. What plays out is a meditation on the forces between rationality and passion, with an underlying hint as to whether chemistry and physical laws can be applied to human relationships.

 

Answer…not really….

 

To end, a historic photo of the Bennett group: the man I was with the team now sadly missing three of them – Michael, Mary and Beryl.

 

 

 

January begins the New Year – things do not look auspicious:

 

 

It is certainly a time of low light: still, epiphany is the 6^th and the sun is now returning.

Snowdrops:

 

 

I make it up to London for a concert at the Royal Festival Hall to celebrate the 80^th birthday of Ralph McTell:

 

 

As readers know, I wrote a biography on him

 

http://www.michaelgrenfell.co.uk/music-n/parallel-lives-the-biographies-of-ralph-mctell-preface-content-to-the-second-edition/

 

Also, the fantastic live interview we did with him in Trinity College, Dublin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhLLmiqrixA&t=6610s

 

A trip to Bath and one of my favourite spots: the canal at Bathampton:

 

 

With a Scottish focus – where I went next – it is also Burns Night. I celebrate in the traditional manner:

 

 

I give a seminar on Bourdieu’s Reproduction to mark the 50th anniversary of its publication:

 

Bourdieu’s Reproduction – 50 Years After – Seminar Presentation

 

I also make it to the local theatre for the play, An Inspector Calls by J B Priestley. An enigmatic play: a bourgeois family is celebrating together when a ‘police inspector calls’. A woman has committed suicide. One by one each are found guilty of driving the woman to this – their world falls apart. The inspector leaves. They convince themselves it was a made up story – check the local police station (no inspector of that name) – no dead suicide in the local hospital. They are relived and celebrate when the phone rings…..

 

 

A Cornwall trip later in the month. Of course, I visit my family home – Mousehole:

 

 

 

IMG_4967

 

The, onto St Ives:

 

 

 

There is an exhibition on the work of Ithell Colquhoun. Again, readers will know I did a lot of work on here. See:

 

http://www.michaelgrenfell.co.uk/ithell-colquhoun-painter-surrealist-feminist-magician/

 

 

I don’t really like the way she has been reconstructed by the Tate, and they do misrepresent her in parts. Still, it is a good selection of her work:

 

 

 

 

 

Someone who dies in obscurity and virtually penniless in 1986. Her work was then stored in a shed by the National Trust in Exeter. Then she was rediscovered….

 

 

 

A visit to Cape Cornwall – another favoured spot:

 

 

 

 

Gwithian and probably my favourite part of the coast in Cornwall:

 

 

And, Temple on the way home:

 

 

 

 

Angels at the alter:

 

 

 

 

I have been reading Thomas Pikerty’s book on Equality:

 

 

Wealth has become a black hole – sucking everything into it. The question is, surely, is it too late to do anything about it? I fear it is. On this, I also recommend the broadcasts by Gary Stevenson:

 

https://www.youtube.com/@garyseconomics

 

Some lovely quartet music by John Pickard:

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=QyHdnq7EzEA

 

 

 

 

 

December and recovering from flu caught on the air-trip back from South America – exacerbated by 30 degrees drop in temperature and jet lag. And, three weeks without seeing the sun!!! I suffer….and am inactive…..

 

I drag myself out. The skies are on fire in the Forest:

 

 

 

 

Then, another birthday – this is getting serious:

 

 

 

And Solstice – I celebrate the return of the Sun King – the Oak King – to the second. Suddenly, there is energy and life again.

 

 

 

 

London lights and a great play at the National Theatre with my favourite actor, Michael Sheen. It is a kind of allegory on the life of the great socialist reformer, Nye Bevan – with major echoes to present day politics which have degenerated into tragic farce.

 

 

 

Christmas: what does it mean to me?

The best answer to this question is the painting of the nativity by William Blake: my spiritual mentor.

Here, the ‘light in the world’ rather than the physical body is stressed: Gnostic. Of course and always….

 

 

William Blake, Gnosticism and Gnosis 2023

 

A happy time of relaxation and recuperation:

 

Snow:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, then floods because of the melted snow.

 

 

 

Lots of time to read. I peruse:

 

       

 

     

 

 

And, listen to new CDs:

 

  

 

 

 

Hello 2025:

Forest Hare leaping:

 

Guardian:

 

 

South America 2024

 

So, November, and I am off on a flight to Argentina/ Brazil.

 

First views of Buenos aires from the apartment where I am statying:

 

 

 

But!, rain!!

 

 

 

 

 

And, then on the road and La Pampas – several hundred kilometres of road!

Time to talk, meditation, sleep.

 

 

 

 

A stop-off to see the amazing cathedral of Lujan – famed for its Virgin Mary, the statue of which refused to be moved – apparently.

 

 

 

 

 

Then a stopover at night in the lovely town/ city of St. Louis.

 

Soon the Mendoza mountains are in view:

 

 

We are in Lunlunta. The House:

 

 

 

 

 

The team:

 

 

 

 

Three performances: an Art Centre in Mendoza, an Art Centre in Malague, and another venue – a commercial centre – in Mendoza.

 

 

 

 

 

Snatches of music:

 

 

 

 

Also, being ‘on the road’.

 

 

 

Time to celebrate and feast!!

 

 

And, now, Porteau Madryn: a peninsula far south in Argentina:

 

 

 

 

Local wild life – Guanacos:

 

 

 

Famous for its whales: they come here to mate and have young because the waters are calm and warm. The pups – when born – have to come to the surface asap because they breath air.

One needs to be equipped and then – off to sea.

 

 

 

 

Another excursion to see seals….

 

 

 

 

And then penguins:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time back in Mendoza/ Chacras to relax – in the lovely garden of the Air BnB.

 

 

 

 

New cat friend:

 

 

Lovely to spend time over a long lunch with Valentina and Juan Paulo:

 

 

And catching up with gifts from Ecuador:

 

 

It being Argentina, there is always football:

 

 

Soo, it’s time to leave – nut, first, Brazil:

 

 

The house in which I stayed:

 

 

The main house:

 

 

 

 

My hosts:

 

 

Some of the wonders on display:

 

 

The terrain:

 

 

Stream and waterfall – with ambient sounds!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wildlife:

 

 

The best meal I have had for a very long time – care of my hosts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, it is time to leave:

 

 

– and what a return:

 

 

 

 

 

The last vestiges of summer sun and a country that is turning autumnal.

 

I make for the far West: my home region of Penwith, Cornwall.

 

Spectacular skies here. Gwithian beach – a favourite:

 

 

 

 

And , Marazion:

 

 

 

But, soon, I am in an airplane and off to the Isles of Scilly:

 

 

 

It is reputed that once upon, England and this land were joined by the lost city of Atlantis. But, the sea rose. Now they are a collection of five large – inhabited – islands and numerous uninhabited islands – some no bigger than large rocks. Some of these were once the home of hermits, monasteries, etc.

 

I make for St Martins. Its beautiful bay:

 

 

 

I make friends with the local birdlife. Many twitters come here to catch birds on their annual migration to southern climes.

 

 

 

As always, a church.

 

 

 

And, then a view of the Eastern isles on the way back to St Mary’s and eventually Lands End airport: 

 

 

 

The next day, it is a storm force….. such is the Atlantic weather in this SW peninsula.

 

 

 

So, next day, it is fine again: I do a tour of the Wells of St. Just.

 

 

 

 

 

Time to visit Mousehole and a favourite view:

 

 

So, here we are at the Conclusion of the MeM Project. We have our final AAD VII meeting. As always, Kitchen Craft and Lunch is a feature:

 

 

 

I make it to London to see a stage version of Dr. Strangelove:

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove

 

This 1964 film by the Director Stanley Kubrick is based on a story of an American General going crazy and ordering the US air force to drop nuclear bombs on Russia/ Soviet Union. Famed for the three roles that Peter Sellers plays in the film: a RAF Officer, the President of the USA and Dr Strangelove – a wheelchair bound German scientist. Essentially a comedy, it still has a chilling message about the possibilities of nuclear war.

 

Was the stage version worth? Well, yes, it brings a fantastic film to the stage with a few contemporary twists. Steve Cogan plays the three roles that Sellers played – and a further one of the aircraft pilot. Actually, Sellers was down to play that in the film as well until it became too much for him. 

 

That being said, it does not add much to the film, – it is more a homage than a re-imagining.

 

 

CD this month – some lively, crazy music from Mexico.

 

 

 

I have also been reading Joseph Azize’s biography of J B Bennett. Pretty copious and comprehensive, whist passing over certain key issues in near silence.

 

 

 

 

 

A busy month of travelling and cultural highlights as Summer tips into Autumn.

 

 

First, I make it to Venice – a city I always find enchanting. This is for the Venice Biennale: a large international art festival that is staged every two years. Much art, therefore. It is possible to fill five days but managed to bring this down to 3.5! This year, the curator was Brazilian, and chose for his theme: ‘Foreigners Everywhere’. Of course this was an open door for art depicting refugees, immigrants, emigrants, and multicultural contexts.

 

 

 

 

However, there was also plenty of exploration of identity, strangers to ourselves, etc.

 

 

 

“One is a stranger in a place where one is not recognized, or one does not recognize.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venice has to be one of my favourite places. So, time to visit quiet corners.

 

 

 

Also, found the Church that is featured in one of my favourite films: Don’t Look Now – staring Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland.

 

 

 

A Nic Roeg film – again, a Director I find fascinating – Walkabout, Man Who Fell to Earth, etc.

Key to the film? As one of the first statement: Nothing is as it seems…

 

Also visit Burano: touristy but a lovely colourful place.

 

 

Back home and a chance to visit Belmont House in Lyme Regis. This is the former home of the author John Fowles. A writer of his age, and there was a time when we waited for his next novel like one waited for the next Beatles’ record. This to know their direction: what were they thinking, wearing, etc.

 

 

It was built in C18 and the inventor of ‘false stone’ and terracotta lived there : Eleonor Coede.  It was certainly worst for wear when Fowles died and has been heavily renovated to the period. Still, it was possible to visit his writing room, the window where his had his desk, his view.

 

 

 

 

 

It also has an observatory built by another owner.

 

 

Fowles let the garden go wild – was delighted with the animals that lived there, flowers, etc. 

 

 

Back in London, I attended a new production of Waiting for Godot – by Samuel Becket. I have seen it several times before but really liked this version. Well acted and personable. I saw how almost each exchange is a philosophical statement in itself – to be unpacked. For me, it also became a play about time. The famous line ‘Let’s go – we cannot – we are waiting for Godot’ is there of course. And then the realization that it does not matter that he will not come : they have fulfilled their responsibility and waited for him.

 

 

 

And, more art: this time the Expressionists: an exhibition of the The Blue Rider (early C20)– mostly – at the Tate Modern in London. This included, Kandinsky, Macke, Delauney, Klee and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CD of the month: I have been listening to Malipiero String Quartets – beautiful

 

 

 

Reading. The Eye of the Needle has preoccupied me this month: both as an exercise and the book of wisdom.  

 

 

I was also invited to contribute a story to the World Bank of Stories. I chose The Wolf by the German author Hermann Hesse, whose work has always meant a lot to me.

 

The Wolf – Hermann Hesse (1907)