Sunday 22 February 2015

Prep for a journey to Venice

Planning a trip to Venice in a couple of weeks - go almost annually now. Is this a pilgrimage? Is any journey made on a regular journey a pilgrimage? What is 'homage'?
Pilgrimages are not, of course, always religious.
Canaletto's paintings at the National Gallery take the breath away.




Later a friend gives me a book by Jan Morris on Carpaccio - which J.M. light-heartedly dismisses as a 'self indulgent caprice' but which really points to the depth of his paintings.
Great spring flowers here to lift the spirit: and an intense attention to detail, as in Canaletto.
Everything seen in a clear and bright light. A great metaphor for looking at life.


Reading and watching

  • Foot by Foot to Santiago de Compostela/Judy Foot
  • The Testament of Mary with Fiona Shaw at the Barbican
  • The Testament of Mary/Colm Toibin
  • Schwanengesang/Schubert - Tony Spence
  • Journals/Robert Falcon Scott
  • Fugitive Pieces/Ann Michaels
  • Unless/Carol Shields
  • Faust/Royal Opera House
  • The Art of Travel/Alain de Botton
  • Mad Men Series 6
  • A Week at The Airport/Alain de Botton
  • The Railway Man/Eric Lomax
  • Bright Lights, Big City/Jay McInerney
  • Stones of Venice/John Ruskin
  • The Sea, the Sea/Iris Murdoch
  • Childe Harold/Lord Byron
  • All The Pretty Horses/Cormac McCarthy
  • Extreme Rambling/Mark Thomas
  • Story of my Life/Jay McInerney
  • Venice Observed/Mary McCarthy