PICK OF THE PIX: SUNRISE

The first rays of sun peep over the Kalymnian mountains in Emporios...

OLD CROCK... NEW CROCKS

My first ever pair of crocks! We are in love...

PICK OF THE PIX: BELL

Blue sky, sunlight and whitewashed stone...

PICK OF THE PIX: PAN

A glimpse of the old god lurking amongst the goats of Kalymnos...?

WHAT IS 'IT' THAT THE GREEKS HAVE A WORD FOR?

Did you know...

The phrase, 'The Greeks Had a Word for It' (see my last-post-but-one) was coined by American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, poet and screenwriter, Zoë Akins whose show with that title opened on Broadway on 25 September, 1930.

The play – a comedy about three young 'gold diggers' on the hunt for wealthy men – was optioned as a film by Twentieth Century Fox in 1932 with Joan Blondell, Madge Evan and Ina Claire.

The title – changed to The Greeks Had a Word for Them – proved too scurrilous and suggestive for the American film censors and was amended to the safe (and dull) Three Broadway Girls.

In 1953, the play became the basis for another film that, despite having no reference to the Greeks, is still fondly remembered...

So, that's the origin of 'The Greeks Had a Word for It'.

As for what 'It' is,  I'm sure I can safely leave that to your imagination...

PICK OF THE PIX: BEES

Bees busily gathering nectar in Emporios...

THE GREEKS HAD A WORD FOR IT...

According to the dictionary... Well, a dictionary...

The word orgy has become connected in the minds of many with unrestrained sexual activity, but its origins are much less licentious... The Greek word, orgia, was used with reference to the secret rites practiced in the worship of various deities, such as Orpheus and Dionysus. 

The word in Greek did not denote sexual activity, although this was a part of some rites. The rites of Dionysus, for example, included only music, dancing, drinking, and the eating of animal sacrifices. Having passed through Latin and Old French into English, the word orgy is first recorded in English with reference to the secret rites of the Greek and Roman religions in 1589. It is interesting to note that the word is first recorded with its modern sense in 18th-century English and perhaps in 17th-century French. Whether this speaks to a greater licentiousness in society or not must be left to the historian, but certainly the religious nature of the word has gone into eclipse.

In fact, here in Greece, it's now something to do with an ICE CREAM!

PICK OF THE PIX: DONKEY

We are currently somewhere near those far-off white buildings just below the donkey's muzzle and above the thistle...

THE LAND WHERE TIME STANDS STILL

After a year of domestic upheavals and sojourns in hospital, it's time to relax with a little sun and sea on our favourite Greek island, Kalymnos...

This will be our twelfth annual visit and, as readers of this blog may remember, I have a ritual that is unerringly observed: when we arrive at Artistico taverna in Emporios, I take off my watch, pull out the winder and it stays off until it's time to return to reality...

 And, of course, Snoopy is always glad to give his little arms a rest!

While we are away (and probably not able to blog efficiently) I will be leaving you with a few Greek Pick of the Pixs to amuse you...

THE PRICE OF FAME

John Cleese is selling part of his art collection at Chris Beetles gallery: there's a John Bratby portrait, a couple of Henry Moores, a nice collection of Albert Goodwins, some great cartoons by Rowland Emett, Ronald Searle and Gerald Scarfe as well as a smattering of movie and TV memorabilia – you can view the lots here.

Prices range from £4000-£14000+ but there are one or two cheaper buys, notably a black-and-white publicity photo from the 1970 Walt Disney animated film Artistocats, which, unsigned, is going for a mere £250!

Now the things is, these glossy 8"x10" publicity shots were produced by the zillion, circulated to every movie reviewer and every newspaper and magazine that carried a feature on the film. Gremlin Fire Arts are selling similar items for a mere $75 a still ($109 framed) and at the film mart or boot fare you're talking of prices in single figures.

Now, I've come up with a great wheeze, if Messrs Cleese and Beetles will only go along with it... The thing is I've got boxes of these publicity still and colour front-of-house sets (of the kind we used to look longingly at outside the Odeon and Roxy) several thousand in fact and many of them going back to a time when Walt Disney was still alive including his first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.

So, I was thinking, if I 'sold' them to John Cleese then he – acting as a 'fence', as it were – boosted the price by virtue of his fame and association and sold them on, through Beetles Gallery, to his many admirers eager for a slice of Cleese, we could divi up the proceeds and all do very nicely, thank you!

Come to that, in the case of Aristocats, I've actually got a couple of original cel paintings from the film that Mr Cleese (for a consideration) might be willing like to help me shift...

EYE LINES

For all you hobbit-watchers and dragon-fanciers...

Here's a sneak preview of the cover of my forthcoming Official Movie Guide for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug...

There's still three months until publication, but there's absolutely nothing to stop you from ordering it right now!

ALICE AFORETHOUGHT

It is the most memorable piece of British TV drama from my youth. I loved it then and I love it still: Jonathan Miller's innovative and evocative reinterpretation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, first broadcast in December 1966.

The famous characters appeared not as their usual feathered, furred and whiskered personae, but as a cavalcade of Victorian figures from belligerent nursemaids, via tedious academics and boring uncles to despotic royalty.

These revisionist portrayals featured a cast of theatrical luminaries, comics and 'sixties icons including: Ralph Richardson, Leo McKern, Wilfred Brambell, John Bird, Finlay Currie and Alan Bennett.

Alice, as played with bored resignation by previously unknown Anne-Marie Mallik, can scarcely have even spent a more testing tea-time than she does here with Peter Cook, Michael Gough and Wilfred Lawson...

As for the climactic trial scene, Wonderland justice has never been so bizarrely interpreted as in this version of events with Alison Leggatt as Queen Victoria-cum-Queen of Hearts and Peter Sellers  as her bumbling, goonish consort...

Scored to the sitar music of Ravi Shankar (jostling on the ears with
military marches, Gilbert & Sullivan and Hymns Ancient &
 Modern) this 72-minute film remains unique in the annals of Alician
adaptation and never more so than in its wistful evocation of Victorian summer days beside the seaside as John Gielgud as the melancholic Mock Turtle and Malcolm Muggeridge as his elderly companion, the Gryphon, dance their own idiosyncratic (but beautifully haunting) take on a Lobster Quadrille...

I have written about the production several times on this blog – one such instance being here, where you will find more pictures and a clip – but my reason for doing so today is to announce that in a month's time, the film's producer and director, Dr Jonathan Miller, will be giving an illustrated talk, Somewhere in Wonderland, to the Lewis Carroll Society, following which I will be engaging the filmmaker in conversation and chairing a Q&A session...



Open to non-Lewis Carroll Society members, Dr Miller's talk will take place at 6:30 for 7:00 pm on Friday 13 September at The Art Workers' Guild , 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT.

Tickets are £10 (£7.50 for Society members) and can be booked in advance at The Lewis Carroll Society website. For further information, telephone: 020 7286 0776.

STUCK UP

When I was young, I had bedroom wallpaper similar to this, though rather less sophisticated (and probably cheaper)...

But before that, not having the money to redecorate the house into which we had just moved, my father improvised by carefully cutting out pictures from the back of Rice Krispies cereal boxes featuring 'Heroes of the West' and pasting them up over the existing – somewhat faded – floral design wallpaper...

I was reminded of this when I discovered (during our move year) that I own a set of unused vintage (c 1956) 'Walt Disney Nursery Decorations'...

These gummed cut-outs feature scenes from classic Silly Symphonies: Three Little Pigs, The Ugly Duckling and Little Hiawatha...

How lucky to have been a kid with these on your bedroom wall!

But then, lucky for me that these ones survived in tact and un-gummed for over fifty years!

You can see the whole set on my Decidedly Disney blog.

PICK OF THE PIX: GLASS GARDEN

Here are a trio of images I captured in 2005, when Dale Chihuly's 'Gardens of Glass' exhibition added new and rare species to the Palm House and various other locations in Kew Gardens...

You will find more of these fragile extravaganzas by Chihuly, along with some vitreous fantasies from Venice, in my flickr photoset, Glass.

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE PUB-DOOR...

Spotted by Roger: 'The Gold Cup' public house in Ascot, which was closed when the landlord retired and, despite protests from CAMRA (The Campaign for Real Ale) the brewery decided to apply for planning permission for a housing development. The sorrowful sight of the once-convivial facade has been somewhat relived by an interesting addition to the boarded-up front door...

The work of a literate graffitist? Or knowing advice to passers-by from a seasoned explorer?

Who knows...

Of course, the first discoverer of Narnia, C S Lewis, was a man who was noted for enjoying a pint of good English ale, so maybe – just possibly – it's worth a try...

Next time you're passing, Roger, give the handle a bit of tug and see what happens. However, if it starts to open and you notice a few snowflakes drifting out, I'd check your travel insurance before going further...

DRAWN FROM MEMORY

Isn't it strange how a single image can evoke a whole chapter of past memories?

July 1959 and the ten-year-old Sibley received, as a birthday present, a book that was to become a much-loved and highly-treasured possession...

Walt Disney's Lady and the Tramp, published by the British company Dean & Son of (if I'm not mistaken) Ludgate Hill, London.

The book was filled with what are now thought of as iconic images from the then newly-released Disney animated film...

 

 

Thus, long before I saw the movie, I knew the story  of the elegant Lady and her liaison with a mongrel from 'the wrong side of the tracks' and had all the key scenes by heart.

Then came that fatal day – I still shudder to recall it – when I came home from school to find that we had been visited by an aunt and uncle and their son and that my Mother had given my cousin my precious book to keep him amused and allowed him to carry it off...

Picture my shock! Imagine my despair! Visualise, if you will, the trauma: desperately trying to be 'grown up' and not show my inexpressible anger, my inconsolable grief at being parted from 'just a silly old children's book' that I had, apparently, 'outgrown years ago'!

It took me two decades (in those pre-eBay days) to find myself a replacement copy with which to assuage the gnawing canker of loss...

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was browsing through an animation auction catalogue when I spotted an item that was, according to the cataloguer, the original art for the cover of a Disney storybook based on Walt Disney's The Lady and the Tramp...

'Cover?' I snorted contemptuously, 'Pah!'

I knew exactly what it was: not the cover, but the end-papers to that most dearly-loved book, showing the titular characters and their canine neighbours, Trusty the Bloodhound and Jock the Scottish Terrier – along with a series of mini-sketches of key-episodes from the story linked by a trail of doggy paw-prints!

I should like to tell you that I bid on the item and successfully secured the item for permanent display on the walls of Chez Sibley, but, alas, I was out-bid and the picture is, even now, en route to another Disney dog-fancier!

But, hey, at least I know that it's out there somewhere – like a stray dog without a collar – and, who knows, one day our paths may cross again...

Meanwhile, I have been reacquainted with half-forgotten memories – happy and sad – from my childhood, that (as David sagely observed) probably explain rather a lot about my obsessive attitude towards my book collection...