More Beautiful Music

Better late than never, I'm finally getting round to listening to James Taylor.  And some of his stuff is amazing, really love 'Fire and Rain'.

Warsaw: Spring Heading Towards Summer

Just a few random shots of everyday Warsaw as it starts moving from spring towards summer.

As you can see below, down near metro Politechnika, the sun really did come out for a few days last week:

Corpus Christi Street Altars in Warsaw

Two of the Corpus Christi street altars that I saw in Warsaw today.

Warsaw: Passing the Lutheran Church on Solidarność

Can also never resist taking a shot of the Lutheran church on Solidarność whenever I pass it, as it's a really beautiful building:

There's also an interesting-looking building right behind it, think it may be a small theatre of some description:

Warsaw: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

No matter how long I've lived in Warsaw, I still can't pass the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier without taking a few shots of it:

Warsaw: An Old Latin Mass on Trinity Sunday

Had the honour of attending a beautiful Old Latin Mass at this church (Kościół Wizytek) on Krakowskie Przedmieście on Sunday afternoon.

My friend Michał had told me a few days beforehand that an Old Latin Mass would be taking place here on Trinity Sunday:

What was unusual about the Mass was the music that accompanied it.  The music itself seemed to be made from an old small organ which sometimes gave out a kind of accordion sound, or that's the best way I can describe it.  Would've loved to have seen the instrument that was making the music.
 

Really enjoyed the intermingling of old Polish hymns and Latin chants during this Mass:

At times, the Latin chants had a somewhat folk music-type quality that I'd never seen done before (been going to the Old Latin Mass intermittently since 1983 when I saw Archbishop Lefebvre say Mass and administer Confirmation at Preston Guild Hall in England).

And the interior of the church itself was impressive, also really glad that this Mass got the decent attendance it deserved:

Hope I get the opportunity to see such a Mass again.

My Sunday Vegetarian Food

My Sunday vegetarian food today:  spinach and chick peas; mild vegetable curry; yellow oatmeal; red cabbage; and salad.

Warsaw University Building Up Near The Proxima

Was up at the Proxima last Wednesday to see PIL and passed this Warsaw University building on the way there:

Can't recall every seeing this building before so I guess it may've sprouted up recently without me noticing it.

Eastern Poland: Misiek in the Idyllic Countryside

Some idyllic pictures from eastern Poland with Misiek looking pensive as he crosses a bridge below:

And enjoying walking through some woodland below:

Thomas Hardy's 'The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion'

Been a few days since I finished reading Hardy's 'Melancholy Hussar'.  With this 15-page short story, we're back with Hardy's tragedy of human fate theme, although we obviously don't feel it to any of the degree that we do  in his great tragedy novels such as 'Tess' and 'Jude', where we have 400 pages or so to build up empathy with the central characters' trials and suffering.  

Still, 'The Melancholy Hussar' was well worth a read.  Phyllis Grove is the central protagonist who lives a deeply unfulfilled life with her father on the Wessex Downs, and is unexpectedly and unromantically wooed by Humphrey Gould, an unreliable-looking bachelor of 30 from Bath. 

Gould goes off to Bath promising to return which he fails to do.  In the meantime, Phyllis starts an unusual, restrained, and yet heartfelt courtship with Matthaus Tina of the York Hussars from the King's German Legion, only communicating with each other over the Grove household garden wall.  Phyllis is struck by Tina's "dreadful melancholy" caused by his hatred of "England and English life".  Tina longs to return to his mother and native Saarbrucken in Germany, and draws up a plan to elope there with Phyllis.

And this is where the cruelty of human fate comes in.  Of all moments, this is when Humphrey Gould returns with a present for Phyllis, and she quite naturally believes he has returned to marry her, so she abandons her planned elopement, and Tina is forced to push on with his friend, Christoph, but no Phyllis.

However, as it cruelly turns out, with Phyllis resigned to a life of formal marriage rather than passionate love, Gould reveals the "monstrous secret" that he has married somebody else.  Moreover, several days later, while peering over the garden wall where she had until recently been meeting Tina, from a distance, she ends up witnessing Tina and Christoph being executed by firing squad for desertion as they had, by mistake, reached the shores of Jersey and not France.

Tina and Christoph are buried in a little church near the garden wall with "no memorial to mark the spot", but Phyllis diligently keeps the "mounds neat".  And finally, to give some kind of stoic symmetry to the tale, their graves end up "over-grown with nettles", as Phyllis' own grave ends up lying near theirs.

PIL Live at Warsaw Proxima 18th May 2016

My shots of John Lydon from the PIL gig at Warsaw Proxima last night.  Couldn't really get any shots of the other members of the band from the weird side position were I ended up near the front of the stage.

John Lydon, from his stage manner, has obviously aged incredibly gracefully (can remember being an 11-year-old schoolboy and being introduced to Johnny Rotten and The Sex Pistols in 1977).
 

Only seen PIL once before at the Warsaw Impact Festival four years ago.

Last night, I was always going to like the famous tunes like 'This Is Not a Love Song'; 'Death Disco'; and 'Rise', but for me, 'The Body' was the tune of the night, the one that had a bit of transcendental bite.

I'm not that big on PIL but just had to be there for some kind of nostalgic value, fully remembering when the band first burst onto the scene in the late 1970s.

Of course, John Lydon deserves a lot of credit for touring in his early 60s and still delivering his own special kind of mischevious humour.

Warsaw City Centre Metro Stop

Was walking up from Krakowskie towards Swiętokrzyskie in Warsaw city centre this morning when I noticed how well this metro stop blended in with the surrounding buildings:

In a strange kind of way, the framework of the purple metro station cover also looked great inside:

The glass wall of a building nearby looked interesting too:

Love it when the man-made environment offers something magical.

Circle II Circle Live at Warsaw Klub Progresja 12th May 2016

My shots from Circle II Circle last night at Warsaw Klub Progresja.

Despite only discovering Circle II Circle (and Savatage) recently, really enjoyed the gig last night.

For me, the stand-out tunes of the gig were 'Somewhere'; 'Watching in Silence'; 'Epiphany'; and especially 'Heal You' (a beautiful, melodic tune), and the old Savatage song 'Edge of Thorns'.

Can't really understand why there was only a small crowd.  For some reason, Circle II Circle seem to be a great undiscovered secret, somehow slipping under the radar.

Stating the obvious when saying that frontman Zak Stevens has a great, distinct voice:

The party piece near the end of the show, with Zak Stevens going on drums for the old Savatage tune 'Hall of the Mountain King':

With keyboard player, Henning Wanner, handling the vocals:

And the band taking a well-earned bow at the end of a thoroughly enjoyable, going on for two-hour set:

Like a few bands I've been seeing recently (e.g. Motorpsycho too), I'm really glad that I've discovered Circle II Circle (and Savatage) late rather than never.  Still having fun distinguishing between the Circle II Circle and Savatage tunes.