La Belle Jour

Islands wax and wane, appear and disappear; a temporary relief from the ubiquity of blue. A continental European oddity, Jersey's pristine blue seas and quaintly British, going on French culture, allows one to step across the 26 miles that separate the UK and France; continental Europe.

As a British man, cultural although I may be, I can't help having my preconceptions, perceptions and comprehensions limited by a rather ferocious and inclement sea that is, literally, all around me.... A sea-faring Nation, us Brits are the champions of cultural stasis, conservative and emotionally-muted; somewhat OCD and over-analytical, a little bit anal, we should have continued the 1960's revolution well into the 21st Century to align ourselves more with the sophisticated Gauls and demonstrative Latin-folk.

I write as Brexit threatens to alter societal vagueries, but not the status quo, not a European recherche, historical, intellectual perspective, nor will it alter our very British love of the continent, nor our fierce defence of our islands and our eccentric, emotionally reserved British existence. Somehow Jersey and its quaint sister islands allow us to reflect on on la difference and, entrez-nous our deep-seated similarities.


Photo; St. Aubin's Bay, Jersey 2017.
Photograph and words copyright "all rights reserved" Simon Harris.
:-) Simon

The Chairman Dances - John Adams

On Adam's "The Chairman Dances" Combined with Imagery from the Chinese Ballet "The Red Detachment of Women"

The synergy between the magnificent balletics and the (post)modern, march of Adam's music is both intriguing and exhilarating! The cogent and graphic symbolism used in the choreography is breathtaking and, juxtaposed with Adam's methodical syncopations, the listener/viewer can begin to lose a sense of time and space. If this is parody or pastiche and "authenticity" is lost, then it doesn't really matter when art breaks down restrictions and divines a truth beyond our usual experiences. The fight scene at the end is almost, pure West-Side Story, Jazz dance-like, brutal yet intrinsically aesthetic. The political/cultural ironies are not lost on me, nor the societal eccentricities of 1950's Communist China and its "Amazonian-style' army. 21st Century democracies seem to borrow from the constraints of Communism, but I guess that's another subject...

Video originally uploaded to Youtube by blacklitetuk