10 October                French kiss

On 10 October 1961 Splendor in the Grass opened on the theatres with the first French Kiss in the history of Cinema. The leading man was Warren Beatty. His leading Lady was Natalie Wood and they played young lovers in Elia Kazan's coming-of-age- tale Splendor in the Grass 

The film's title is taken from a line of William Wordsworth's poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood":

     What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind...

Many photographers like the Frencman Robert Doisneau tried to catch the moment and the magic of it

But the most famous photograph is the epic french kiss in Times Square given to a nurse by a sailor

Glenn Mc Duffie was changing trains in New York when he learned that Japan had surrendered. “I was so happy. I ran out in the street,” said Mr. McDuffie, then 18 and on his way to visit his girlfriend in Brooklyn

“And then I saw that nurse,” he said. “She saw me hollering and with a big smile on my face. I just went right to her and kissed her.”

“We never spoke a word,” he added. “Afterward, I just went on the subway across the street and went to Brooklyn.”

 

 

 

 

Berlin - Bicycle kiss - 1996 

11 October  

Господи! Помоги мне выжить среди этой смертной любви

My God Help me to survive this deadly love 

Sometimes referred to as the Fraternal Kiss was snapped by Régis Bossu in East Berlin in October 1979 in the festivities of the 30th anniversary of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik in October 1979— East Germany. 

The celebrations’ guest of honor was the aging Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. When Brezhnev finished his speech, East German President Erich Honecker opened his arms to congratulate him with a big kiss, a normal ritual for socialist comrades.  (But both Honecker and Brezhnev were a little more enthusiastic than an average Communist in kissing. A contemporary joke runs such: Brezhnev was commenting about a foreign leader, “As a politician, so and so… but what a good kisser!”) Many magazines used it immediately, and Paris Match devoted double pages to it, with a caption “The Kiss”.

  7 Years later, on October 11, 1986

 Ronald Reagan and Michail Gorbachef didn't give any fraternal kiss but they manage to melt the ice of the cold war, certainly in Iceland, the land of the icebergs

On that day, halfway between Moscow and Washington, D.C., the leaders of the world’s two superpowers met at the stark and picturesque Hofdi House in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Reagan and Gorbachev had established a personal relationship just one year before at their Geneva Summit. In Geneva they attempted to reach agreement on bilateral nuclear arms reductions. Since then, their negotiators had reached an impasse. Both leaders hoped a face to face meeting at Reykjavik might revive the negotiations.

The talks between Reagan and Gorbachev at Reykjavik proceeded at a breakneck pace. Gorbachev agreed that human rights issues were a legitimate topic of discussion, something no previous Soviet leader had ever agreed to.  A proposal to eliminate all new strategic missiles grew into a discussion, for the first time in history, of the real possibility of eliminating nuclear weapons forever.

Aides to both leaders were shocked by the pace of the discussions. A summit that began with low expectations had blossomed into one of the most dramatic and potentially productive summits of all time. At one point Reagan even described to Gorbachev how both men might return to Reykjavik in ten years, aged and retired leaders, to personally witness the dismantling of the world’s last remaining nuclear warhead.

But one point of contention remained. Reagan was committed to see his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to completion.  Gorbachev, fearing an imbalance of power, was equally determined to make sure SDI would never be implemented. Reagan offered assurances to Gorbachev that the missile defense shield, which he had championed and funded despite widespread criticism at home,  was being developed not to gain an advantage, but to offer safety against accidents or outlaw nations. Reagan offered many times to share this technology with the Soviets, which Gorbachev refused to believe.

Toward the end of the long and stressful final negotiations Gorbachev would accept continued development of SDI as long as testing was confined to the laboratory for the next ten years. Reagan would not agree. He could not and would not allow the division of his two-part strategy of the simultaneous elimination of nuclear weapons with the creation of a missile defense shield.

After the negotiations broke down without a final agreement, Reagan wrote that he left the meeting knowing how close they had come to achieving his long goal of eliminating the threat of nuclear destruction, and that this was the angriest moment of his career.

Despite failing to achieve either man’s ultimate goal, Reykjavik will be recorded as one of the most important summits in history.  A year after Reykjavik the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), for the first time eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapons.  The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed a few years later during President H.W Bush’s term.

None of this progress would have been possible without the courage of two leaders to look beyond past hostilities and forge a new and lasting relationship, that would soon provide greater security for people around the world.   

12 October                    Voskhod 1

On 12 October 1964  Восход-1  (Восход is Russian for Sunrise) was the first space flight to carry more than one crewman into orbit, the first flight without the use of spacesuits, and the first to carry either an engineer or a physician into outer space. 

During the mission, the crew was assigned a number of experiments, including the study of fluid behavior in weightlessness, star-tracking tests, photo and video documentation. The fluid-dynamics experiment promised to give engineers clues about the behavior of propellant in the tanks of rockets, which had to fire their engines in the weightlessness of space. Voskhod-1 inserted into a 180 by 400-kilometer orbit with an inclination 65 degrees toward the Equator. 

There engineer Konstantin Feoktistov asked the Commander Pilot Vladimir Komarov who is that person in front of the spacecraft who was asking them to stop by hitchhiking to them  Doctor Boris Yegorov opened the door to the stranger and asked him who on the Universe is he and what is he doing there?!  the stranger thanked them for stopping by and he introduced himself as Douglas Adams and his robot Marvin, he told them that he was hitchhiking around the universe because he's gonna write a novel about that

“You know," said Commander Pilot , "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.”

Adams blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important. Suddenly he realized what it was.
"Is there any tea on this spaceship?" he asked.” 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  was published 15 years later on 12 October 1979

This must be Thursday,' said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. 'I never could get the hang of Thursdays.   For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. 

On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons

“O Deep Thought computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us...." he paused, "The Answer."
"The Answer?" said Deep Thought. "The Answer to what?"
"Life!" urged Fook.
"The Universe!" said Lunkwill.
"Everything!" they said in chorus.
Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.
"Tricky," he said finally.
"But can you do it?"
Again, a significant pause.
"Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."
"There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement.
"Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But, I'll have to think about it."
...
Fook glanced impatiently at his watch.
“How long?” he said.
“Seven and a half million years,” said Deep Thought.
Lunkwill and Fook blinked at each other.
“Seven and a half million years...!” they cried in chorus.
“Yes,” declaimed Deep Thought, “I said I’d have to think about it, didn’t I?"

[Seven and a half million years later.... Fook and Lunkwill are long gone, but their descendents continue what they started]

"We are the ones who will hear," said Phouchg, "the answer to the great question of Life....!"
"The Universe...!" said Loonquawl.
"And Everything...!"
"Shhh," said Loonquawl with a slight gesture. "I think Deep Thought is preparing to speak!"
There was a moment's expectant pause while panels slowly came to life on the front of the console. Lights flashed on and off experimentally and settled down into a businesslike pattern. A soft low hum came from the communication channel.

"Good Morning," said Deep Thought at last.
"Er..good morning, O Deep Thought" said Loonquawl nervously, "do you have...er, that is..."
"An Answer for you?" interrupted Deep Thought majestically. "Yes, I have."
The two men shivered with expectancy. Their waiting had not been in vain.
"There really is one?" breathed Phouchg.
"There really is one," confirmed Deep Thought.
"To Everything? To the great Question of Life, the Universe and everything?"
"Yes."
Both of the men had been trained for this moment, their lives had been a preparation for it, they had been selected at birth as those who would witness the answer, but even so they found themselves gasping and squirming like excited children.
"And you're ready to give it to us?" urged Loonsuawl.
"I am."
"Now?"
"Now," said Deep Thought.
They both licked their dry lips.
"Though I don't think," added Deep Thought. "that you're going to like it."
"Doesn't matter!" said Phouchg. "We must know it! Now!"
"Now?" inquired Deep Thought.
"Yes! Now..."
"All right," said the computer, and settled into silence again. The two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable.
"You're really not going to like it," observed Deep Thought.
"Tell us!"
"All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question..."
"Yes..!"
"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.
"Yes...!"
"Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.
"Yes...!"
"Is..."
"Yes...!!!...?"
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.” 

Douglas Adams was asked many times why he chose the number 42. Many theories were proposed, including that 42 is 101010 in binary code, that light refracts through a water surface by 42 degrees to create a rainbow, that light requires 10⁻⁴² seconds to cross the diameter of a proton. Adams rejected them all.  On 3 November 1993 however, he gave this answer

The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do' I typed it out. End of story.

Adams described his choice as 'a completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also six and seven. In fact it's the sort of number that you could without any fear introduce to your parents.

In January 2000, in response to a panelist's "Where does the number 42 come from?" on the radio show "Book Club", Adams explained that he was "on his way to work one morning, whilst still writing the scene, and was thinking about what the actual answer should be. He eventually decided that it should be something that made no sense whatsoever – a number, and a mundane one at that. And that is how he arrived at the number 42, completely at random."

Stephen Fry, a friend of Adams, claims that Adams told him "exactly why 42", and that the reason is "fascinating, extraordinary and, when you think hard about it, completely obvious." However, Fry says that he has vowed not to tell anyone the secret, and that it must go with him to the grave

Friday 13 October  

On another  Friday13th  October1972  a chartered flight carrying the Stella Maris rugby team and family members from Uruguay – yes that does sound more like an Irish team – crashed into the side of the Andes when the pilot began to descend too early. Poor weather conditions including a strong headwind meant he thought they were past the mountain range when they fatally hit land   

There were 27 survivors in the initial crash; most were members or supporters of the rugby team which had chartered the plane to fly to Chile for a match. A doctor on board died, but there were two medical students in the group that improvised and made splints and braces from what they could. The survivors had a limited supply of chocolate, snacks and wine which they rationed but there were little medical supplies or proper clothing for the conditions.

 Although they were certain of imminent rescue, the survivors, under the leadership of rugby team captain Marcelo Pérez, organized their efforts over the next few days to clear the plane of debris, melt snow into water to avoid dehydration, and devise ways to keep from freezing to death in the subzero temperatures of the night. But no rescue came, and after ten days they heard the news on the small transistor radio they had found in the plane that the search had been called off. Desperate, starving, and with no hope of being saved, the survivors made the difficult decision to eat the bodies of the dead in order to stay alive. This was a difficult decision for many as most were close friends, but it was obviously taken as a last resort. One survivor, Pedro Algorta, thought of it as communion, from their friends' deaths, the other would live.  Some, including Coche Inciarte, and the Methols refused to eat, so they were given the rest of the dwindling chocolate; it wasn't long before this ran out and these few who had refused reluctantly ate as well.

"I guarantee you that 100 per cent of people would do the same as we did up on that mountain," says Nando Parrado, right.

In his book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home, Nando Parrado would comment 34 years later upon the making of the sleeping bag:

The second challenge would be to protect ourselves from exposure, especially after sundown. At this time of year we could expect daytime temperatures well above freezing, but the nights were still cold enough to kill us, and we knew now that we couldn't expect to find shelter on the open slopes. We needed a way to survive the long nights without freezing, and the quilted batts of insulation we'd taken from the tail section gave us our solution ... as we brainstormed about the trip, we realized we could sew the patches together to create a large warm quilt. Then we realized that by folding the quilt in half and stitching the seams together, we could create an insulated sleeping bag large enough for all three expeditionaries to sleep in. With the warmth of three bodies trapped by the insulating cloth, we might be able to weather the coldest nights.

Carlitos [Páez] took on the challenge. His mother had taught him to sew when he was a boy, and with the needles and thread from the sewing kit found in his mother's cosmetic case, he began to work ... to speed the progress, Carlitos taught others to sew, and we all took our turns ... Coche [Inciarte], Gustavo [Zerbino], and Fito [Strauch] turned out to be our best and fastest tailors.

With food in their stomachs they were determined to escape on their own, but they still suffered terribly from hunger, cold, sickness, and bad weather. One of the worst moments came on October 29th, when an avalanche hit and filled the plane with snow while the group slept - they just couldn't catch a break. One survivor poked a hole through the wreck to create ventilation and the incident claimed the last remaining female survivor Lilian Methol. That night eight people die under the snow . One of those eight was Marcelo Pérez, whose death left the group without solid leadership. The void he left was eventually filled by the three Strauch cousins (Eduardo, Fito, and Daniel Fernández), who were trusted and highly respected among the other boys. After the avalanche the remaining survivors were buried alive in the fuselage for three days. These 3 days they find the courage to celebrate Numa Turcatti’s birthday on the 30th, Carlitos Páez birthday on the 31st and Pancho Delgado’s birthday on the 1st of November.

 Although many of them believed that dying would be easier than going on living, the survivors kept fighting for life and organized expeditions aiming to escape the mountain.  After two months and one failed attempt to get help, three members of the group, Canessa, Parrado and Vizintín set out again to get help. With a sleeping bag in tow for getting through the nights, the three made the startling discovery after the third day on the mountain top that they still had kilometres to go before reaching civilisation. They decide that Vizintín should return to the plane and leave his ration of food. Canessa and Parrado ‘s food ration would last longer; therefore they would be able to walk to Chile and reach civilization. 

Canessa and Parrado reach the bottom of the mountain at noon and keep walking along the valley. When they stop for a short rest they see a stream surrounded by moss and reed. This is the first sample of vegetation they have seen since the accident. Although he was exhausted, Canessa looks for weed to eat. They continue walking along the valley. Becoming impatient to reach the end of the path, Parrado walks faster leaving Canessa far behind him. At last the snowy valley comes to an end and to their amazement they have an extraordinary view, there is no snow but flowers and bushes and a river bed going west. They see some animals and rest for a while. Then they continue along the right side of the river. Canessa realises he has lost his sunglasses and needs to go back for them; otherwise his sight would be harmed.

To keep their way they have to cross the fast flowing river and after that they are ready for the best night since they have left the plane. Early next morning Canessa sees a herd of cows, which motivates him to follow. They find the first sign of civilization, an empty soup can. Later they find a horseshoe and some cut down trees, all of which assures the closeness of civilization. When they go to sleep they are sure they will definitely be rescued.When they wake up they do not see the cows. They get rid of things they will no longer need, such as the sleeping bag. They keep walking along the valley but cannot find any signs of civilization, which is somehow alarming. Canessa feels sick and Parrado carries both backpacks. At last they find a man made yard. They spend the night near some trees. Before falling asleep Parrado finds out that the river they have been following comes together with another, which makes it impossible to go further on. They cannot cross it. When he goes to collect some wood, Canessa sees a man riding a horse on the opposite river bank and yells at Parrado to go and meet him, as he was unable to walk. Parrado runs to the river seeking the horseman but doesn’t find him so he returns to Canessa who no longer sees him either. Later on, they hear someone shouting and to their surprise they see three horsemen on the far bank of the river. Both of them shout and begged for help .One of the horsemen gets closer to the river and says something. All they understand is “tomorrow”. They go to sleep very happy after what has happened.  

Back on the plane, Carlos Páez and Daniel Fernandez have a feeling that the expedition has reached Chile and found help. In the morning Canessa and Parrado see the three horsemen again. Parrado goes close to the river and shouts at them. One of them, Chilean arriero Sergio Catalán, throws them a stone wrapped in a paper. In it they read that he has sent someone to that bank of the river to see what they need. When he finishes, he throws the note to the other side of the river.

"I come from a plane that crashed into the mountains. I'm Uruguayan. We've been walking for 10 days. My friend is badly injured up in the mountain. There are 14 guys on the plane. We need to leave this place and we do not know how to. We have no food. We’re weak. When are you going to rescue us? Please we can hardly walk. Where are we?"

The man who reads it shows understanding. Before leaving, he throws a piece of bread and Parrado catches it. Some hours later, a horseman arrives at the place where Canessa and Parrado are. They tell him what has happened, he gives them some bread and cheese and takes them to the cabin, where they eat non-stop. There, they are told that the one who has met them was on his way to the police station with their letter. In the afternoon, some policemen arrive with Sergio Catalán, the man who first saw them. Three helicopters are brought from Santiago to rescue the rest of the survivors. http://www.eduardostrauch.com/site/index.php?module=viven&lang=en

The ones on the plane hear the news on the radio; One horseman has bumped into two survivors of the Uruguayan plane that crashed 13th October. On Friday 22nd of December, they wake up in the cabin, it's foggy which is disappointing as the rescue might not take place. After breakfast a crowd of journalists from all over the world is waiting for them. They kindly answer all their questions, except those connected to the way they fed. The helicopters arrive at Los Maitenes, where they are. Parrado decides to join them to guide them to the wreck. The trip to the Fairchild is really hard. Making a great effort they manage to reach the plane.

There they met the 14 survivors, who waved their arms frantically to the helicopters, and thanking for being rescued. Six of them are rescued that very day. The others remain in the plane with part of the rescue team, as it is too dangerous to fly in those weather conditions.Some hours later they are taken to “San Juan de Dios” hospital, in San Fernando and treated for altitude sickness, dehydration, frostbite, broken bones, scurvy and malnutrition. 

After spending 72 days on the mountain and enduring unimaginable hardships against all odds, 16 boys were brought home alive.  This event quickly became one of the most famous and enduring stories of survival ever told, and the details of what they went through in those 72 days still captivate and inspire the world today.

14 October    A wonderful man, an amazing leader

14 October 1969 Olof Palme forms his first Privy Council Government in Sweden 

with the Socialdemokratin party

"The rights of democracy are not reserved for a select group within society, they are the rights of All the People"

"For us Democracy is a Question of Human Dignity

And Human Dignity is Political Freedom"

"Our goal is freedom, as far as possible, from the pressure of external conditions, freedom for individuals to develop their unique personalities, freedom to shape our lives in accordance with our own wishes."

Olof Palme changed the world and he does so to this day. His words and deeds still inspires people to commit to democracy, human rights and peace

Olof Palme will live forever in our hearts and Sweden is a bless for Humanity  https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Conference_Report_Swedish_Disarmament_Policy.pdf

Today the President of United States declared that he disavows Nuclear Deal and that makes even more important to remember Olof Palme and his life struggle about Nuclear Disarmament

15 October           Sir Charles Chaplin

released his famous political speech in 'The Great dictator' on 15October1940 

The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and in his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in the United States. The first of these was a new boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics. Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work. 

Parallels between himself and Adolf Hitler had been widely noted: the pair were born four days apart, both had risen from poverty to world prominence, and the German dictator wore the same toothbrush moustache as the Tramp. It was this perceived physical resemblance that supplied the pretext for the plot for Chaplin's next film, The Great Dictator, which directly satirised Hitler and attacked fascism.

Chaplin spent two years developing the script, and began filming in September 1939, for the first time he had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice, but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message. Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk. "I was determined to go ahead," he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at." 

Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that he was a Jew. In a dual performance he also played the dictator "Adenoid Hynkel", who parodied Hitler  

16 October  

opened on October 16, 1983 at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 362 performances.  It was directed by Michael Cacoyannis and choreographed by Graciela Daniele opened with the music of Mikis Theodorakis.  http://youtu.be/DyBwFIPipas

 The cast included Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova (who had both starred in the film version, the latter winning an Oscar for her performance). It is based on the novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. http://youtu.be/xSI_5Gm2zl8

Zorbas was a real-life person and friend of Kazantzakis, who taught him how to love life and not to fear death.

“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’ “Act as if death did not exist, and act with death in mind at every moment"   https://youtu.be/xkQrmWNzfYs

"…I look on death every moment and I’m not afraid; yet I never say I like it. No, I don’t like it at all! Am I not free? I refuse to sign up!”

Those who met him speak of a person free of social conventions, illiterate yet ingenious, and profoundly philosophical, which is why he touched Kazantzakis’ soul. 

The fictional Zorba embodies the very essence of life in all its manifestations. His main traits are an indomitable life force and intuition. A life force that propels him forward, enabling him to overcome listlessness and inertia, with a deep-running instinct that guides him and keeps him in immediate contact with the essence of things. http://youtu.be/MeriTXdLfZk

As to the major philosophical questions that preoccupy the narrator, through plain thinking and the experience of a tumultuous life, Zorba shows him that the answers - if they do exist - are not to be found in books, but in life itself, as long at it is lived passionately, free of hopes and expectations..  http://youtu.be/_YDiy4iKUFA

"I don't hope anything, I don't fear anything, I'm free" Nikos Kazantzakis

17 October      

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion"  Albert Camus

60 years ago, philoshopher Albert Camus on October 17, was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times"

http://youtu.be/iVeC--VOqSU

I have chosen this song because I'm sure that both Zorba who grabbed life and lived every moment to the full and Camus even in his most melancholic days of absurdity would find reason in it 

Albert Camus was a fragile dreamer, philosopher of the absurd as his friend Sartre has named him 

Many writers have addressed the Absurd, each with his or her own interpretation of what the Absurd is and what comprises its importance. For example, Sartre recognizes the absurdity of individual experience, while Kierkegaard explains that the absurdity of certain religious truths prevent us from reaching God rationally. 

Camus regretted the continued reference to himself as a "philosopher of the absurd". He showed less interest in the Absurd shortly after publishing Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus). To distinguish his ideas, scholars sometimes refer to the Paradox of the Absurd, when referring to "Camus's Absurd". 

The essential paradox arising in Camus's philosophy concerns his central notion of absurdity. Accepting the Aristotelian idea that philosophy begins in wonder, Camus argues that human beings cannot escape asking the question, “What is the meaning of existence?” Camus, however, denies that there is an answer to this question, and rejects every scientific, teleological, metaphysical, or human-created end that would provide an adequate answer. Thus, while accepting that human beings inevitably seek to understand life's purpose, Camus takes the skeptical position that the natural world, the universe, and the human enterprise remain silent about any such purpose. Since existence itself has no meaning, we must learn to bear an irresolvable emptiness. This paradoxical situation, then, between our impulse to ask ultimate questions and the impossibility of achieving any adequate answer, is what Camus calls the absurd. Camus's philosophy of the absurd explores the consequences arising from this basic paradox.

“Nothing, nothing mattered, and I knew why. So did he. Throughout the whole absurd life I'd lived, a dark wind had been rising toward me from somewhere deep in my future, across years that were still to come, and as it passed, this wind leveled whatever was offered to me at the time, in years no more real than the ones I was living." The Stranger  

 Camus made a significant contribution to a viewpoint of the Absurd, and always rejected nihilism as a valid response.

"If nothing had any meaning, you would be right. But there is something that still has a meaning." Second Letter to a German Friend, December 1943.

Camus's understanding of the Absurd promotes public debate; his various offerings entice us to think about the Absurd and offer our own contribution. Concepts such as cooperation, joint effort and solidarity are of key importance to Camus, though they are most likely sources of 'relative' versus 'absolute' meaning. In The Rebel, Camus identifies rebellion (or rather, the values indicated by rebellion) as a basis for human solidarity.

When he rebels, a man identifies himself with other men and so surpasses himself, and from this point of view human solidarity is metaphysical. But for the moment we are only talking of the kind of solidarity that is born in chains.

18 October               Paul Morphy in Paris

Paul Morphy was in Paris one year after the first American Chesscongress trying to persuade Anderssen to meet in Paris for an epic match, in a letter on 8 October, he was writing to him that he is ready to cover the expences of his trip on this special occassion. In the meantime he was playing chess in Cafe De La Regence and he was going to the Opera 

Mon cher Monsieur,  J'ai reçu dernièrement deux lettres, l'une du club d'échecs de Leipsic, l'autre de celui de Breslau, m'invitant à me rendre en ces villes pour engager un match avec Mr Anderssen. Il m'est impossible d'accepter ces propositions, mais j'en ai une à vous faire, qui, je l'espère, sera agréable aux amateurs de la Régence. J'offre de consacrer les 295 francs qui m'ont été remis de la part des parrains de Mr Harrwitz à payer les frais de voyage de Mr Anderssen. L'invitation lui serait adressée par les amateurs de la Régence. Agréez l'assurance de ma haute considération.

 A few days later, on Monday morning, 18 October 1858, Paul Morphy walked to Rui Saint Honores at Cafe De La Regence to meet his chessfriends as usual, and his historical blindfold simultane occurred  

http://www.academicchess.org/Pictureshows/Morphy/blindfoldchessnyt.shtml

The Cafe de la Regence was a meeting place for chess players in Paris. http://youtu.be/bDjrL0Zlkdw  It was the most famous chess meeting-place for over a century. The building was a coffehouse in the centre of Paris

It was frequented by Philidor, Legall, Povespierre, Anderssen, Keizeritchky, Paul Morphy etc. but not only chess, on his tables Karl Marx and Thomas Enghels were drinking their coffee around 1845 and certainly even amateur chess players, like that young woman who challenged Robespierre to a game of chess and when she won she revealed her identity to plead for the life of her condemned lover, and she got an order for his immediate release.http://youtu.be/b_AlNw0RX_M       what chess and good sportmanship can do

http://youtu.be/RuKcHjptSB4

George Walker, an English master, described the congenial coffee-house in 1840: "Stove-heated to oppression, gas-lighted, mirrors in abundance and slabs of marble to top its tables. On Sunday all keep their hats on, to save space, and an empty chair is worth a ransom. The din of voices shakes the roof as we enter, like a beast-show at feeding time! Can this be chess, the recreation of solitude? We sigh for cotton to stuff our ears. Mocha is brought. We sip. Manners are to be noted and chessmen are to be sketched. The English are the best lookers-on in the world, the French the very worst. They do not hesitate to whisper their opinions freely, to point with their hands over the board, to foretell the probable future, to vituperate the past. I have all but vowed that when next I play chess in Paris, it shall be in a barricaded room. Midnight is long gone. Players are thinning, the garcons yawn, the drums have beaten the round, and the good wives of Paris are airing their husbands' nightcaps. I reluctantly prepare to face the cold. Farewell, at least for a season, to the Cafe de la Regence."

During Paul Morphy’s famous European adventures that year, he made several stops at the famous Cafe de la Regence in Paris, France.  One of Morphy’s encounters at the cafe involved him playing eight of the strong cafe regulars in a blindfold simultanne in the presence of approximately 250 chess fans. After ten hours of play, Morphy had amazingly won six games, drawn two, and lost zero. 

It was reported that Morphy never took a break and did not even appear fatigued at the conclusion of play. One of his games from this event is presented below, as annotated by Johann Jakob Lowenthal. His secretary F. T. Edge caught the moment:

"Morphy stepped from the arm chair in which he had been almost immovable for ten consecutive hours with having tasted a morsel of anything, even water, during the whole consecutive period; yet as fresh, apparently, as when he sat down. The English and Americans, of whom there were scores present set up stentorian Anglo-Saxoo cheers, and the French joined in as the whole crowd made a simultaneous rush at our hero. The waiters of the cafe had formed a conspiracy to carry Morphy in triumph on their shoulders, but the multitude was so compact they could not get near him, and finally they had to abandon their attempt. Great bearded fellows grasped his hands, and it was nearly half an hour before we could get out of the cafe. Pierre Morel fought a passage through the crowd by main strength, and we finally got into the street. There the scene was repeated the multitude was greater out of doors than in the cafe, and the shouting, if possible, more deafening..."

18 October                Odysseas Elytis

Greek poet Odysseas Elytis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on 18 October 1979http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1979/press.html

Odysseas Elytis was the poet of the Aegean Sea and Sun. The blue Aegean sea and the unaltered azure sky of the Greek islands, the glorious infinite light, the white small houses, the olive trees and the churches, ancient amphorae and ruins, summer high noons and the winds define the scene where life is liberated and triumphant, mystical and deeply meaningful. The influence of the sea and the sun is diffused in almost all his poems. He said: 'I never was a disciple of the surrealist school. I found certain congenial elements there, which I adapted to the Greek light. Europeans and Westerners always find mystery in obscurity, in the night, while we Greeks find it in light, which is for us an absolute' 

Odysseas Elytis wrote about his poetry:“I consider poetry a source of innocence full of revolutionary forces. It is my mission to direct these forces against a world my conscience cannot accept, precisely so as to bring that world through continual metamorphoses into greater harmony with my dreams. I am referring here to a contemporary kind of magic whose leads to the discovery of our true reality. It is for this reason that I believe, to the point of idealism, that I am moving in a direction which has never been attempted until now. In the hope of obtaining a freedom from all constraints and the justice which could be identified with absolute light, I am an idolater who, without wanting to do so, arrives at Christian sainthood. There was always the oriental side which occupied an important place in the Greek spirit. Throughout antiquity oriental values were assimilated. There exists an oriental side in the Greek which should not be neglected. It is for this reason that make the distinction” 

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1979/elytis-lecture.html

I lived the beloved name

In the shade of the grandmother olive tree

In the roar of the lifelong sea          "Sun the First"  O.Elytis

I have brought my life as far as this

To this point when the youth on the rocks,

Ever by the sea

Ever restless with the sea, breast

To breast with the wind

Where can a man go

When is nothing but a man

Reckoning in dews his green moments,

In waters his visions of his hearing,

In winds his pangs of remorse

Oh Life

Of a child who becomes a man

Ever by the sea

When the sun teaches him

To take a breathe there

Where vanishes the seagull's shadow 

I have brought my life as far as this,

Stone vowed to the liquid element

Further off than the islands,

Lower than the waves

Neighbor to the anchors

-When the keels pass a new obstacle

And tear it with passion and conquer it

And hope with all her dolphin dawns

Gain of the sun in a man's heart-

The nets of doubt draw in

A figure of salt painfully chisled

Indifferent, white

Turning to the sea the void of the eyes

Sustaining the infinite.                          Orientations - Odysseas Elytis

published in 1936, was Elytis's first volume of poetry. Filled with images of light and purity, the work earned for its author the title of the "sun-drinking poet." Edmund Keeley, a frequent translator of Elytis's work, observed that these "first poems offered a surrealism that had a distinctly personal tone and a specific local habitation. The tone was lyrical, humorous, fanciful, everything that is young." In a review of a later work, The Sovereign Sun, a writer for the Virginia Quarterly Review echoed Keeley's eloquent praise: "An intuitive poet, who rejects pessimism and engages in his surrealistic images the harsh realities of life, Elytis is a voice of hope and naked vigor. There is light and warmth, an awakening to self, body, and spirit, in Elytis."

The poet, however, disagreed with such descriptions of his work. He suggested that "my theory of analogies may account in part for my having been frequently called a poet of joy and optimism. This is fundamentally wrong. I believe that poetry on a certain level of accomplishment is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. It represents rather a third state of the spirit where opposites cease to exist. There are no more opposites beyond a certain level of elevation. Such poetry is like nature itself, which is neither good nor bad, beautiful nor ugly; it simply 'is'. Such poetry is no longer subject to habitual everyday distinctions."

Elytis poem - Monogram

The Monogram was written between 1969 and 1971 in Paris by the self-exiled poet. Ιt is considered to be one of the world's masterpieces of dramatic love poetry 

The Monogram stands as a celebration of Elytis’ following own words: I introduced to poetry a new method of understanding the world through the senses... To me the senses do not necessarily carry erotic implications, as they have an air of holiness. Furthermore we can say that every reader who reads The Monogram may discover the endless dimensions of love; thus he comes closer, in a way, to immortality

Elitis was also a talented painter and produced illustrations of his poetic world in gouaches and collages.

 Ανθ’ ημών η αγάπη – Instead of us is Love 

 “This is why I write. Because poetry starts where death does not have the last word. It is the end of one life and the beginning of another, which is similar to the first one, but it goes very deep, to the utmost point that the soul could trace, at the borders of antitheses, there where the Sun and Hades touch each other. The endless impetus toward the physical light which is the Word and the non-created light which is God”

19 October                     Henry O Tanner

          wins Medal of Honor at Paris Exposition in 1900

 Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 – May 25, 1937) was the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. He moved to Paris in 1891 to study, and decided to stay there, being readily accepted in French artistic circles.

Although many artists refused to accept an African-American apprentice, in 1879 Tanner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, becoming the only black student. His decision to attend the school came at an exciting time in the history of artistic institutional training. Art academies had long relied on tired notions of study devoted almost entirely to plaster cast studies and anatomy lectures. This changed drastically with the addition of Thomas Eakins as “Professor of Drawing and Painting” to the Pennsylvania Academy.  

Although he gained confidence as an artist and began to sell his work, he had to deal with racism in Philadelphia. It had traditionally had strong ties to the South through numerous planter families and commercial ties; in addition, planters had sent their daughters to Philadelphia academies. Although painting became a therapeutic source of release for Tanner, the lack of acceptance in society was painful. In his autobiography The Story of an Artist’s Life, Tanner describes the burden of racism: "I was extremely timid and to be made to feel that I was not wanted, although in a place where I had every right to be, even months afterwards caused me sometimes weeks of pain. Every time any one of these disagreeable incidents came into my mind, my heart sank, and I was anew tortured by the thought of what I had endured, almost as much as the incident itself."

In an attempt to gain artistic acceptance, Tanner left America for France in late 1891. Except for occasional brief returns home, he spent the rest of his life there. In Paris, Tanner was introduced to many new artists whose works would affect the way in which he painted. At the Louvre, Tanner encountered and studied the works of Gustave Courbet,Jean-Baptiste Chardin and Louis Le Nain. These artists had painted scenes of ordinary people in their environment and the effect in Tanner’s work is noticeable. The influence of Courbet’s The Stonebreakers (1850; Destroyed) can be seen in the similarities painted by Tanner in his The Young Sabot Maker (1895). Both paintings explore the theme of apprenticeship and hand labor.

He studied under renowned artists such as Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. With their guidance, Tanner began to establish a reputation. He settled at the Étaples art colony in Normandy. Earlier Tanner painted marine scenes that showed man’s struggle with the sea, but by 1895 he was creating mostly religious works. A transitional work from this period is the recently rediscovered painting of a fishing boat tossed on the waves, which is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

In 1893 on a short return visit to the United States, Tanner painted his most famous work, The Banjo Lesson, while in Philadelphia. The painting shows an elderly black man teaching a boy, assumed to be his grandson, how to play the banjo. https://youtu.be/38uu6QxiWiM This deceptively simple-looking work explores several important themes. Blacks had long been stereotyped as entertainers in American culture, and the image of a black man playing the banjo appears throughout American art of the late 19th century. 

These images are often reduced to a minstrel-type portrayal. Tanner painted a sensitive reinterpretation. Instead of a generalization, the painting portrays a specific moment of human interaction. The two characters concentrate intently on the task before them. They seem to be oblivious to the rest of the world, which enlarges the sense of real contact and cooperation. The skillfully painted portraits of the individuals make it obvious that these are real people and not types.

Painting Style

Tanner is often regarded as a realist painter, focusing on accurate depictions of subjects. While works such as The Banjo Lesson were concerned with everyday life as an African American, Tanner later painted themes based on religious subjects, for which he is now best known. It is likely that Tanner's father, a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was a formative influence for him.

Tanner's body of work is not limited to one specific approach to painting. His works vary from meticulous attention to detail in some paintings to loose, expressive brushstrokes in others. Often both methods are employed simultaneously. The combination of these two techniques makes for a masterful balance of skillful precision and powerful expression.

Tanner was also interested in the effects that color could have in a painting. Many of his paintings accentuate a specific area of the color spectrum. Warmer compositions such as The Resurrection of Lazarus(1896) and The Annunciation (1898) express the intensity and fire of religious moments, and the elation of transcendence between the divine and humanity.

Other paintings emphasize cooler, blue hues. Works such as The Good Shepherd (1903) and Return of the Holy Women (1904) evoke a feeling of somber religiosity and introspection. Tanner often experimented with light in a composition. The source and intensity of light and shadow in his paintings create a physical, almost tangible space and atmosphere while adding emotion and mood to the environment.

Tanner's work was influential during his career; he has been called "the greatest African American painter to date. Tanner's Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City (c. 1885 oil on canvas) hangs in the Green Room at the White House; it is the first painting by an African-American artist to be purchased for the permanent collection of the White House. The painting is a landscape with a "view across the cool gray of a shadowed beach to dunes made pink by the late afternoon sunlight. A low haze over the water partially hides the sun." It was purchased for $100,000 by the White House Endowment Fund during the Bill Clinton administration from Dr. Rae Alexander-Minter, grandniece of the artist.

20 October                Meteora  Rocks

The choice of Meteora for the filming of James Bond "For Your Eyes Only" provoked the strong reaction of the monks 

On October 20, 1980 and while shooting of the film was in progress, the monks of the monasteries covered the buildings with plastic sheeting in order not to allow the camera to capture shots from inside the monasteries.  

The reaction of the monks was so intense that even it was threatened to stop the film. The monks covered with plastic sheets and the roofs of buildings to prevent the recording from the cameras of the interior of the monastery. 

According to the British «Times», the monks, in response, tried to "sabotage" shooting by hanging laundry ... in the midst of close-ups. Finally the film was completed and has been a great commercial success.   http://youtu.be/lXO8wWDf2EA

The Holy Trinity Monastery (Μονή Αγίας Τριάδος) is an Eastern Orthodox Monastery in central Greece, situated in the Peneas Valley northeast of the town of Calabaka http://youtu.be/ApfwA4b0GbE  the homeland of the great bouzouki player and composer Vasilis Tsitsanis (see also forum Greek music) http://youtu.be/BFoy2xeDiu4    (Tavern in Calabaka) 

The Holy Trinity Monastery where the movie was filmed is situated at the top of a rocky precipice over 400 metres high and forms part of 24 monasteries which were originally built at Meteora, one of the oldest still existing of the Meteora monasteries (Meteora means "suspended in the air" in Greek).

Six of the 24 monasteries are still active and open to visitors. The church was constructed between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and is included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites titled Meteora. May be in America you have Colorado but here in Greece we have Calabaka and Meteora

According to Atlas Obscura, the region is mostly unexplored by tourists, but this is likely to change, given the influence of Meteora in the popular series "Game of Thrones" as "the valley of Eyrie". The presence of the site in a row, can turn it into a destination for fans of the series who want to find and admire the sites of shootings. 30 million years ago this entire area was a vast inland sea and when the waters receded, they left these rocks behind.  This would explain the gnarls, carvings, and swirling patterns that only erosion by water could create. http://youtu.be/Onq6eBXbLiI

The Rocks of Meteora were first inhabited by hermit monks during the 11th century, they lived in caves and cut outs in the cliffs. It wasn't until 1344 that the first proper monastery was built at Metora when a group of monks from Mount Athos lead by Athanasios Koinovitis came and built the Monastery on road rock. The monks were completely safe from the world, the only way up was with a set of ladders, and these were pulled up whenever the monks felt threatened. Steps were carved into the rocks during the 1920's, before this the only access to the monasteries were ladders.

The monasteries had many priceless artwork and artefacts, but a lot of this was looted during World War Two, Meteora was also bombed during this period.

Due to the security of Meteora another 20 monasteries were built on the rocks during the 14th century, especially as Byzantine Greece was slowly being absorbed into the Ottoman Empire.

photos are taken from Ian Mallory's site: http://malloryontravel.com/2011/11/cool-places/greece/meteora-mystical-monastic-city-clouds-adventure-travel-photography/

for more informations and photos: http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Greece/Prefecture_of_Trikala/Meteora-424451/TravelGuide-Meteora.html

http://www.athens-greece-guide.com/meteora.htm

21 October   Paul Morphy at Theatre Italien in Paris

Last time we left Paul Morphy in Cafe De La Regence winning in a blindfold simultane all the people inside the cafe in his "works and days" in Paris while he waited for Anderssen to come on Christmas after the letter-invite he had sent to him early in October to travel to Paris at Morphy's expenses cause the greatest privilege for Morphy was to win the European GrandMaster Anderssen accepted the challenge with pleasure but he replied that he could not travel earlier than Christmas holidays due to work. Meanwhile Paul Morphy enjoyed his time in Paris

On 21st October 1858 Paul Morphy acquainted with  the German noble Duke Karl of Brunswick and the Count Isouard who invited him to the Italian Opera House in Paris, Salle Le Peletier, where Duke Karl kept a private box which was, according to Morphy's associate Frederick Edge, so close to the stage that one "might kiss the prima donna without any trouble", and which always contained a chess set, the Duke being a keen player as well as an opera lover.

Morphy was extremely fond of music and opera and was eager to see Norma,  https://youtu.be/DDax8rSE8I8 not with Maria Callas of course 100 years later, but with Rosina Penco. Unfortunately, his host had seen Norma countless times, and Morphy found himself forced to play chess, even seated with his back to the stage.

The chess game played between Paul Morphy and the German noble Duke Karl of Brunswick and the French aristocrat Count Isouard. Duke Karl and Count Isouard consulted together, playing as partners against Morphy. The game is often used by chess instructors to teach the importance of rapid development of one's pieces, the value of sacrifices in mating combinations, and other chess concepts. The game is sometimes called "The Opera Game"

As the game progressed, the two allies conferred loudly enough with each other, debating their moves against the American genius, that it attracted the attention of the opera performers. Madame Penco, who had the role of the Druidic priestess in Norma, kept looking into the Duke's box, to see what all the fuss was about, even as she was performing the opera. Then the performers who were the Druids, marched about, "chanting fire and bloodshed against the Roman host, who, they appeared to think, were in the Duke's box", Edge recounted: It is doubtful if the distracted opera singers had a good enough view of what was going on. Comically, Morphy created this brilliant game while spending his time trying to overcome his blocked view of the opera, while the performers tried to catch glimpses of what was going on in the Duke's box. 

The Game

22 October         Orionids

A Shower of Orionids fills the sky on this day of October every year 

The Orionid meteor shower, usually shortened to the Orionids, is the most prolific meteor showerassociated with Halley's Comet. The Orionids are so-called because the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, lies in the constellationOrion, but they can be seen over a large area of the sky. Orionids are an annual meteor showerwhich last approximately one week in late-October. you can either catch a falling star  http://youtu.be/GOSmSq0xuo0

   swing on a star  http://youtu.be/_B1OYLC4fuk

 or wish on a falling star  http://youtu.be/pfNoGx7KJY4

anything you do you'll be revived with possitive energy, sweet dreams and hopes sparkled with starlight and dewdrops  

The Orionids are considered to be one of the most beautiful showers of the year. Orionid meteors are known for their brightness and for their speed. These meteors are fast -- they travel at about 148,000 mph (66 km/s) into the Earth's atmosphere. The Orionids are also framed by some of the brightest stars and planets in the night sky, which lend a spectacular backdrop for theses showy meteors.

The Orionids are viewable in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres during the hours after midnight. Find an area well away from city or street lights. Come prepared with a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair. Lie flat on your back with your feet facing southeast if you are in the Northern Hemisphere or northeast if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible. In less than 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adapt and you will begin to see meteors. Be patient -- the show will last until dawn, so you have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.  

Their radiant -- the point in the sky from which the Orionids appear to come from -- is the constellation Orion. The constellation of Orion is also where we get the name for the shower: Orionids. 

Note: The constellation for which a meteor shower is named only serves to aid viewers in determining which shower they are viewing on a given night. The constellation is not the source of the meteors.  http://youtu.be/7hmwr3rYwO0 

Also, you need not look only to the constellation of Orion to view the Orionids -- they are visible throughout the night sky. It is actually better to view the Orionids at least 90 degrees away from the radiant. They will appear longer and more spectacular from this perspective. 

https://www.space.com/34373-orionid-meteor-shower-guide.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_meteor_showers

 If you want to have more showers of stardust and dewdrops many times a year you can determine Meteor Shower Activity for where you live
http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html

What a coincidence, on a day like this the musical "Swinging on a Star" opened in Broadway Music Box Theatre in 1995    http://youtu.be/QHjGt0Z0CNo

When you look up in the sky at night and you see the billions of stars like a magic carpet that covers the earth mother with twinkling shafts of light. The true majesty of the Great Spirit is apparent to you and you realize you are a very small infinitesimal part of the universe we live in. The beauty of which is awesome to behold from the smallest creature to the vastness of the Milky Way.  As I stood in awe I played my flute and watched the beauty of the night in nature’s entire splendor. My feet could feel the moisture of the dew on the grass and my heart could feel the warm glow of my friends at my side. We are all just sparks in the Great Mystery’s Eternal Flame that fell from the sky to Mother Earth and one day like fireflies we shall return to the Stars in the Sky of the Great Star Nation. http://youtu.be/RRr_QyJ_cyU

From the book "The Storytellers Flute"  

23 October                The Hollywood Blacklist

In 1947, the House of Un-American Activities Committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. 

70 years ago, when the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began to investigate charges of communist influence in Hollywood, Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild.

The Committee met on the 3rd day at 10:30 A.M. [October 23, 1947], J. Parnell Thomas (Chairman) presiding and Ronald Reagan in his Testimony 

before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1947) denied to give any names unless it was proven that an organization is an agent of a foreign power, or in any way not a legitimate political party

http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/108/110880/ch26_a5_d1.pdf

Eventually, more than 300 artists—including directors, radio commentators, actors and particularly screenwriters—were boycotted by the studios. Some, like Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Paul Robeson and Yip Harburg, left the U.S or went underground to find work. Others wrote under pseudonyms or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "The Hollywood Ten" were blacklisted by the industry.

The Hollywood Ten in November 1947 waiting to be fingerprinted in the U.S. Marshal's office after being cited for contempt of Congress. Front row (from left): Herbert Biberman, attorneys Martin Popper and Robert W. Kenny, Albert Maltz, Lester Cole. Middle row: Dalton Trumbo, John Howard Lawson, Alvah Bessie, Samuel Ornitz. Back row:Ring Lardner Jr., Edward Dmytryk, Adrian Scott.

*Amazing coincidence - if you anagrammatise the Dalton Trumbo's name what do you get? 

24 October            

 Russia celebrates 100 years of October Revolution 

Communism is an ideological and a social political movement. Its aim is to set up a communist society. This society would be based on the common ownership of the means of production and would have no social classes, money, or state. No large society has ever achieved this. According to communist writers and thinkers, the goal of communism is to create a classless society. Communist thinkers believe this can happen if the people take away the power of the bourgeoisie (the ruling class, who own the means of production) and create a dictatorship of the proletariat (the working class).

Personally I don't like dictatorships of all types but given the chance, and since I am Greek, I would like to write a few lines about Democracy, which is my favourite political system and was born in Athens 2525 years ago by Cleisthenes, son of Megacles and uncle of Pericles. 

Cleisthenes called his reforms isonomia ("equality vis à vis law", iso-=equality; nomos=law), and these reforms based in justice, respect and dignity for all the people of Athens created the democracy

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/Halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.asp

He established sortition - the random selection of citizens to fill government positions rather than kinship or heredity, a true test of real democracy. He reorganized the Boule, created with 400 members under Solon, so that it had 500 members, 50 from each tribe. He also introduced the bouletic oath, "To advise according to the laws what was best for the people". The court system (Dikasteria — law courts) was reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors selected each day, up to 500 from each tribe. It was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convened in Athens around forty times a year for this purpose. The bills proposed could be rejected, passed or returned for amendments by the assembly.

 http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/athenian_const.html

Cleisthenes also may have introduced ostracism (first used in 487 BC), whereby a vote from more than 6,000 of the citizens would exile a citizen for 10 years. The initial trend was to vote for a citizen deemed a threat to the democracy (e.g., by having ambitions to set himself up as tyrant). However, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile (e.g., Xanthippus in 485/84 BC). Under this system, the exiled man's property was maintained, but he was not physically in the city where he could possibly create a new tyranny. One later ancient author records that Cleisthenes himself was the first person to be ostracized.

Below ostracon with the inscription of the name of Themistocles son of Neocles

There were three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6000), the council of 500 (boule) and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, but running at least on some occasions up to 6000). Of these three bodies it is the assembly and the courts that were the true sites of power – although courts, unlike the assembly, were never simply called the demos (the People) as they were manned by a subset of the citizen body, those over thirty. But crucially citizens voting in both were not subject to review and prosecution as were council members and all other officeholders.

The institutions sketched above – assembly, officeholders, council, courts – are incomplete without the figure that drove the whole system, Ho boulomenos, he who wishes, or anyone who wishes. This expression encapsulated the right of citizens to take the initiative: to stand to speak in the assembly, to initiate a public lawsuit (that is, one held to affect the political community as a whole), to propose a law before the lawmakers or to approach the council with suggestions. Unlike officeholders, the citizen initiator was not voted before taking up office or automatically reviewed after stepping down — it had after all no set tenure and might be an action lasting only a moment. 

Approximately 1100 citizens (including the members of the council of 500) held office each year. They were mostly chosen by lot, with a much smaller (and more prestigious) group of about 100 elected. Neither was compulsory; individuals had to nominate themselves for both selection methods. In particular, those chosen by lot were citizens acting without particular expertise. This was almost inevitable since each office could be held by the same person only once. For example, "The same person could not be a member of the Boule in two consecutive years, and could only be a member twice in a lifetime. The use of a lottery to select officeholders was regarded as the most democratic means: elections would favour those who were rich, noble, eloquent and well-known, while allotment spread the work of administration throughout the whole citizen body, engaging them in the crucial democratic experience of, to use Aristotle's words, "ruling and being ruled in turn" 

The beauty of Democracy made the people creative and this was reflected in Art, the immortal beauty of the ancient Greek marble sculptures represent the harmony in the souls of the citizens, while their liberated spirit thrived in all artistic forms like Theatre, Poetry, Philosophy etc  The right measure and justice which democracy prevailed allowed them to live with dignity and respect, while the Olympic Games and athletics teached them how to persevere to Peace and attain character through the good sportmanship

Prosperous and wealthy citizens were asked or volunteered to undertake the expenses for a theater chorus. The choregos (sponsor) was responsible for assembling the members of a chorus, train them, pay them wages,  cover the expenses of their costumes, masks, and see that the preparing and training for a successful performance was good. 

There was a competition among the sponsors for the first place. The one who received the first prize, the winner, could set up a choregic Monument to immortalize his name. Sponsor monuments were usually tripods, placed on some elaborate base eg a column with a nice capital or a nice edifice or temple looking base.

24 October  

Greek poet George Seferis was awarded the Nobel prize for literature "for his eminent lyrical writing, inspired by a deep feeling for the Ellenic world of culture"http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=375

Greek poet George Seferis was born Georgios Seferiades in Urla, near Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey). He worked as a diplomat for the Royal Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1963." http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1963/seferis-speech.html   In his banquet speech he concluded with a message for a humanitarian world and next day he commented in his Nobel acceptance speech  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1963/seferis-lecture.html  "When I read in Homer the simple words “φάος ἠελίοιο” - today I would say “φως του ηλίου” (the sunlight) - I experience a familiarity that stems from a collective soul rather than from an intellectual effort. It is a tone, one might say, whose harmonies reach quite far; it feels very different from anything a translation can give. For we do, after all, speak the same language - a language changed, if you insist, by an evolution of several thousand years, but despite everything faithful to itself - and the feeling for a language derives from emotions as much as from knowledge. This language shows the imprints of deeds and attitudes repeated throughout the ages down to our own" http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/4357 

"The angel 3 years we waited intently for him, 
closely scanning the pines the shore the stars
One with the plough's blade or the keel of the ship
We were searching to rediscover the first seed 
so that the ancient drama could begin again."

From the Mythistorema in Collected Poems
Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

In 1914, Seferis and his family moved to Athens. He studied law at the Sorbonne in Paris and entered diplomatic service in 1925. Seferis was exiled from Smyrna when it was claimed by Turkey; he subsequently spent many years living and working outside of Greece. Before World War II, he was posted in England and Albania. During the war he moved with the Free Greek Government to Egypt, South Africa, and Italy. After the war, his diplomatic posts included Ankara, London, Lebanon, and Syria. Seferis served as Royal Greek Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1961. In 1962 he retired and moved to Athens. http://youtu.be/KgMrxliF-bQ

Wandering and exile are present in Seferis’s poetry, and his work is attuned to the history of Greece—the Nobel Prize committee recognized him as a “representative Ellenic poet.”

Just a little more 
And we shall see the almond trees in blossom 
The marbles shining in the sun 
The sea, the curling waves. 
Just a little more 
Let us rise just a little higher

I woke with this marble head in my hands;
It exhausts my elbows and I don't know where to put it down.
It was falling into the dream as I was coming out of the dream.
So our life became one and it will be very difficult for it to separate again  http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4112/the-art-of-poetry-no-13-george-seferis

The Dream

 I sleep but my heart stays awake

it gazes at the stars, the sky and the tiller

and how the water blossoms on the rudder

(translated by Edmund Keeley)

Some interesting works, essays and dissertations on George Seferis

http://www.academia.edu/1470186/Preliminary_Remarks_on_George_Seferiss_Visual_Poetics_Byzantine_and_Modern_Greek_Studies_32.1_2008_80-103

http://www.enotes.com/topics/george-seferis

http://www.fryktories.gr/article/hope-and-futility-poetry-g-seferis

Denial (Greek: Άρνηση) is a poem by Giorgos Seferis published in his collection Turning Point ("Strophe") in 1931. After the coup that overthrew the Greek government in 1967, Seferis went into voluntary seclusion and many of his poems were banned, including the musical versions which Mikis Theodorakis had written and arranged. Denial came to be the anthem of resistance to the regime and was sung by the enormous crowds lining the streets at Seferis' funeral.

DENIAL [English translation by Edmund Keeley and Phillip Sherrard]

On the secret seashore

George Seferis was an Elected Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and became an Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association. 

25 October      

         I just listened that Fats Domino died today 

Grenada (above)  is a beautiful small peaceful island, an "independant country" in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela with an estimated population of 100 thousand people. About 2 million years ago, Grenada was formed as an underwater volcano. Before the arrival of Europeans, Grenada was inhabited by Arawaks and, subsequently, Island Caribs. 

Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498 during his third voyage to the new world  and named it "La Concepción" in honour of the Virgin Mary. One year after, the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci travelled through the region and have renamed the island "Mayo", which is how it appeared on maps for around the next 20 years.

The island is also known as the "Island of Spice" due to its production of nutmeg and mace crops, of which it is one of the world's largest exporters. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada dove.   http://www.arkive.org/grenada-dove/leptotila-wellsi/

But Alas, the poor joyfull and friendly inhabitants of the island were unlucky to have a marxist-Leninist government in the early 80's establishing close ties with Cuba, Nicaragua, and other communist bloc countries 

On 25 October 1983  U.S. troops invaded the island with the excuse to secure the 400 American students of Medical school, and started a real war there. Conspiracies, Invasions and Assassinations again...The US stated this was done at the behest of Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica. While the Governor-General of Grenada, Sir Paul Scoon, later stated that he had also requested the invasion, it was highly criticised by the governments of Britain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Canada. 

The United Nations General Assembly condemned it as "a flagrant violation of international law" by a vote of 108 in favour to 9, with 27 abstentions. The United Nations Security Council considered a similar resolution, which was supported by 11 nations and opposed by only one — the United States, which vetoed the motion.

    Ain't that a Shame? 

26 October       Please accept "Peace & Freedom"

Joan baez was a determined war protester as well as a successfull singer. She was jailed several times for her political activism during the Vietnam years

50 years ago, on 26 October 1967 Joan Baez was released from prison after been arrested in Oakland, California, where at least 40 anti-war protesters, including the folk singer Joan Baez, were arrested for taking part in a sit-in at a military induction centre. As many as 250 demonstrators had gathered to try and prevent conscripts from entering the building when the arrests were made.

The 'Stop the Draft Week' protests are forming part of a nationwide initiative organised by a group calling itself 'the Resistance'. Accompanied by singing from Ms Baez and others, the sitting protesters forced draftees to climb over them in order to get inside the building. As they entered they were handed leaflets asking them to change their minds, refuse induction and join the protests.

From 1948 until 1973 American men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary means. University students could be exempt though this tended to favour young men from more privileged, high income families. Others who did not wish to fight could apply for the status of 'Conscientious Objector' on moral or religious grounds. Many who could not obtain exemption and refused to sign up received prison terms. In 1973, the draft ended and the US converted to an 'All-Volunteer military'. 

On 26 October 2001 The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law. An Act to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes.

From then on in a mysterious way strange situations, uprisings, terrorist organisations are created around the globe and a lot many more wars too

27 October          Maquis    Free French Heroes

Free France and its Free French Forces (French: France Libre and Forces françaises libres) were the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle during the Second World War and its military forces, that continued to fight against theAxis powers as one of the Allies after the fall of France. Set up in London in June 1940, it was organised and supported the Resistance in occupied France.

 "I, General de Gaulle, now in London, invite French officers and men who are at present in British soil, or may be in the future, with or without their arms; I invite engineers and skilled workmen from the armaments factories who are at present on British soil, or may be in the future, to get in touch with me.

"Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and shall not die."

And alluding to his self-conceived mission he wrote in "The Call to Honor," the first of his three-volume war memoirs:

"What I was determined to save was the French Nation and the French State. What I had to bring back into the war was not just Frenchmen, but France."

"C'etait a moi d'assumer la France." ("It was up to me to take responsibility for France.")

Later on 27 October 1940, the Conseil de défense de l'Empire was constituted to organise the rule of the territories in central Africa, Asia and Oceania that had heeded the 18 June call. It was replaced on 24 September 1941 by the Comité national français or CNF On 13 July 1942,

"Free France" was officially renamed France combattante ("Fighting France"), to mark that the struggle against the Axis was conducted both externally by the FFF and internally by the French Forces of the Interior (FFI). After the reconquest of North Africa, this was in turn formally merged with de Gaulle's rival general Henri Giraud's command in Algiers to form the French Committee of National Liberation (Comité français de Libération nationale or CFNL). Exile officially ended with thecapture of Paris by the 2nd Armoured Free French Division and Resistance forces