Syrah/Shiraz from McLaren Vale, South Australia, Australia.
Purchased price $106.00 (Restaurant).
Generally priced ~$60.00 retail.
Rankings: Wine Spectator 93. Robert Parker 93. Me 93.
ABV: 16.5%
A full-bodied, bold, deep-reddish purple wine with scents of plums and chocolate. Enjoyed it with a medium-cooked tenderloin. Wonderful.
This is an outstanding wine but a little on the pricey side for its ranking.
Don’t forget the “Mollydooker Shake”.
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So begins Leo Tolstoy’s epic 19th century Russian novel, Anna Karenina. A beginning line that is not only one of literature’s great openings, but it indubitably stages an existential story that transcends time, culture, and humanity: a diegesis of love and misery.
Love and misery where mental and societal control is lost to emotional need. When Anna’s lover, Vronsky, pleads with her to respect her mother’s needs and his duty, she snaps, “Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be. And if you don’t love me anymore, it would be better and more honest to say so.” (chapter 24)
Anna Karenina through time has consistently ranked as one of the greatest novels ever written. Encyclopaedia Britannica lists it as the number one novel of all time.
Sources: Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, serialized in 1875, published in book form in 1878. Plath et al, The 100 Greatest Literary Characters, published in 2019. Enclyclopaedia Britannica, 12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”, by Jonathan Hogeback.
Aleksey Kolesov, “Portrait of a Young Woman” (Anna Karenina), 1885. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She's got Bette Davis eyes
Bette Davis Eyes. By Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon
In 1503 Leonardo da Vinci ended his association with the murdering and duplicitous Cesare Borgia, meaning he was again without a patron or in today’s vernacular; unemployed and without income. Likely, through a paternal connection, familial duty, and the need for money, he agreed to take a commission from a silk merchant to paint his 24-year-old wife: Lisa del Giocondo nee Gherardini.
He posed her in a seated, half-length, unconventional three-quarter portrait view with a typical Leonardo background of winding rivers, mountains, and misty sky. Her enigmatic smile and follow-you-anywhere eyes are the subject of endless discussions and debates. He employed his now famous, delicate blending of colors with soft edges; “sfumato”, and his almost transparent layering to create what is now considered the archetypical Renaissance art form, and the world’s most famous and valuable painting. Some estimates place the value of the painting somewhere north of one billion dollars.
In predictable fashion, Leonardo never finished the painting. He began the painting in 1503, as confirmed by a margin note in a book dated to that year, and continued working on it until he died in France in 1519 at the age of 67. If you look closely at the painting, you will notice that Lisa does not have any eyebrows or eyelashes although modern science has detected them as being originally there. It is believed that they were removed over time by repeated cleanings, but it is just as likely Leonardo overpainted them with the intent of painting them back on at some later date.
The painting is now on display in the Louvre, having been purchased by the King of France, Francois I, Leonardo’s final patron, shortly after the painter’s death.
Source: Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson. Published 2017.
Painting from Wikipedia. Public Domain
Salvator Mundi, Savior of the World, is believed to have been painted by Leonardo da Vinci sometime between 1499 and 1510 which is considered by historians to be the beginning of the High Renaissance period. The painting was supposedly commissioned by King Louis XII of France and was later recorded in the possession of the English Kings Charles I and II. How the English acquired the painting is unknown. It was then passed onto the Duke of Buckingham in the 1600s after which his son sold it in 1763. The painting then disappeared for 137 years.
It reappeared in 1900, changing hands a few times without anyone realizing it may be an authentic Leonardo. In 2005 a consortium of art dealers and collectors purchased it with the intent to have it cleaned and restored all the while attempting to prove that it was indeed a Leonardo painting. In 2013 most experts agreed that it was an authentic Leonardo allowing it to be sold for $80 million to Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier which he quickly resold to the Russian Rybolovlev for $127.5 million. This sale quickly became a legal mess with the resolution not entirely clear.
Somehow the legal issues resolved themselves and the painting came to market again in 2017 selling for $450.3 million, making it the most expensive painting ever sold. After much wild and erroneous speculation, it was revealed that Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism bought the painting. It is currently in storage awaiting the completion of the Louvre Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
In 2020 the experts have struck again and attribution of the painting to Leonardo is in doubt. Experience says this debate will continue ad infinitum. Meanwhile an extremely expensive art piece supposedly by a gay painter of Jesus Christ resides in the Arab Middle East.
Sources: Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson published in 2017. Salvator Mundi by Christies published in 2017. Salvator Mundi by ArtNet published in 2020.
It was the year without summer. During the year 1816, temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any recorded between 1766 and 2000. Across the pond in New England frost occurred every month of the year and six inches of snow fell in June. Crops failed, food was scarce, and people died unpleasantly premature.
There was no summer that year because in 1815 the Indonesian volcano, Mount Tambora, had a fit and blew its top, more or less straight up into the stratosphere. The amount of material injected into the upper atmosphere blocked the sunlight and caused global cooling.
Meanwhile, not to let bad weather forestall important matters, Lord Bryon while vacationing in Geneva, challenged his two companions, Percy Shelly, and Mary Godwin, the soon to be Mary Shelly, to a contest of who could write the best ghost story. Lord Bryon and Percy soon abandoned the project, but Mary persevered and published her Frankenstein two years later, giving birth to the monster with no name, countless movies, myths, legends, and frightful nights for children everywhere.
In the tenth chapter of her epistolary novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, we finally meet her fictional monster to learn not only that it lives, but it also speaks grammatically correct King’s English. Shelly cast her monster as Lucifer from the pages of Milton’s Paradise Lost. The monster, addressing its creator, Victor Frankenstein, speaks of profound loneliness, “The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.”
In the end the monster wishes to die but the author leaves those matters in the reader’s hands.
Sources Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. First published in 1818. The 100 Greatest Literary Characters by Plath et al, published 2019. Cover from a 2012 edition of Frankenstein shown below.
Theaters: 15 December 2023
Streaming: 15 December 2023
Runtime: 102 minutes
Genre: Documentary-Music-Rock and Pop
els: 9.0/10
IMDB: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 100/100
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 92/100
Metacritic Metascore: 75/100
Metacritic User Score: 8.5/10
Awards: Tons
Directed by: Denny Tedesco (Son of 1960s session musician Tommy Tedesco)
Music by: Everyone
Cast: James Taylor, Carole King, David Crosby, Keith Richards, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Warren Zevon, Phil Collins, Lyle Lovett, Steve Jordan, Neil Young, plus the band
Film Locations: USA
Budget: –
Worldwide Box Office: $66,100
Some of the greatest rock and pop session and touring musicians ever come together after 50 years of playing for others to play as family. The Immediate Family is Danny Kortchmar on guitar and vocals, Russ Kunkel on drums, Steve Postell on guitar and vocals, Leland Sklar on bass, and Waddy Wachtel on guitar and vocals.
This documentary follows the musicians from their beginnings in the 1970s as studio musicians that decided to take their talent on the road. In the past the studio guys backed the stars and helped them get their music to the market and that was it. Studio guys didn’t go on the road because when they got back someone else would have taken their job. Going on tour is something session musicians just didn’t do until Danny, Russ, Steve, Leland, and Waddy came along. They were so good that the artists asked for them and the studios went out and brought them in.
They have just released their second studio album, Skin In the Game, on 16 February 2024 through Quarto Valley Records. Skin in the Game weighs in with 14 tracks, 13 originals plus a cover by the Sparks’: “The Toughest Girl in Town”. It is a wonderful addition to their first eponymous named album/EP.
If you followed rock and pop through the seventies and onward you heard these guys play, you just may not have known who they were; until now.
Theaters: 4 October 2014 (NYFF)
Streaming: 17 February 2015
Runtime: 149 minutes
Genre: Comedy–Neo-Noire Crime–Drama–Mystery
els: 6.0/10
IMDB: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 74/100
Rotten Tomatoes Audience: 53/100
Metacritic Metascore: 81/100
Metacritic User Score: 7.3/10
Awards: Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay–Nominated Best Custume Design: Academy Awards
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenplay by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Thomas Pynchon
Music by: Jonny Greenwood
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix–Josh Brolin–Katherine Waterston
Film Locations: USA
Budget: $20 million
Worldwide Box Office: $14.7 million
While waiting for Dune Part 2 I’ve been catching up on Josh Brolin movies. This is a don’t blink movie. There are enough jigsaw pieces to the plot that it takes almost till the end of the movie to put all the pieces back together and it is likely that a few pieces will remain hidden under the table, because well, you blinked.
Plot synopsis: Chinatown meets Big Lebowski. Inherent Vice comes in third.
Definition of Inherent Vice for the curious:
Inherent vice, aka a latent defect, refers to a natural characteristic of goods or property that can cause them to deteriorate, become damaged, or spoil. Insurance companies typically exclude coverage for losses resulting from this inherent quality or defect. Here are some examples where an inherent vice exclusion would apply:
In essence, inherent vice is a hidden flaw or characteristic that makes the item an unacceptable risk for carriers or insurers. It is usually an insurance exclusion for marine policies.
Source: http://www.insuranceopedia.com
Leonardo, dreamer, artist, and scientist; Cesare Borgia, Cardinal, murderer, duplicitous tyrant; and likely subject of Niccolo Machiavelli’s book: The Prince, were holed up together for three months during the Renaissance winter of 1502-1503 in the five blocks by eight blocks Italian walled garrison town of Imola.
According to Walter Isaacson in his 2017 “Leonardo da Vinci” biography he states that, “While he was in Imola with Machiavelli and Borgia, Leonardo made what may be his greatest contribution to the art of war. It is a map of Imola… It is a work of beauty, innovative style, and military utility…Drawn in ink with colored washes and black chalk… The aerial view is from directly overhead, unlike most maps of the time. On the edges he specified the distances to nearby towns, useful information for military campaigns…”
Cesare Borgia (1475-1507), backed by his father Pope Alexander VI, was on a military campaign to carve out his own personal princedom, by hook, crook or force. He had moved his court to Imola to further plans for his conquest of the area. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was there because he had signed on as Borgia’s chief military engineer. Leonardo’s task was to reinforce castles and defenses in the region and construct new military machines based on his notebook designs such as his rapid-fire projectile weapon, armored car, helicopter, and giant crossbows; none of which were ever built in his lifetime. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), was dispatched by the Florentine authorities as a diplomat to discern Borgia’s intentions towards the city and dissuade him, if possible, from attacking Florence.
As an aside, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher and critic, introduced the concept of Ubermensch: an idealized individual who transcends conventional morality and societal norms. Nietzsche elevated Borgia to this lofty status. Borgia’s daring, ruthlessness, and strategic cunning seemed to align with the philosopher’s ideals of a powerful individual who creates his own fate. Many have split hairs with Nietzsche’s concept of Ubermensch but when one creates his own morality it is hard to distinguish the end result from that of a psychopath.
Shown above is Leonardo’s map of Imola drawn in 1502-03. Public domain.
Shown above right is a Friedrich Nietzsche, circa 1975. Photo by Friedrich Hartmann. Public domain.
“I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up.” – From Chapter 36-The Quarter-Deck of Melville’s Moby Dick. Published 1851.
“Some know him by his peg leg…Others by the white scar that runs head to toe, the result of an unfortunate encounter witha lightning bolt. Still others by his entourage of harpooner henchmen with names like Fedallah, Daggoo, Tashtego, and Queequeq.
Mostly, readers know him because he’s shorthand for any intense, self-destructive fixation…
He, of course, is Captain Ahab…”
Excerpt from “The 100 Greatest Literary Characters”. By Plath, Sinclair, and Curnutt. 2019.
The book also has one of the great opening lines in all of literature: “Call me Ishmael.” The narrator introduces himself to the reader in three words. How simple and straightforward can one get? In a few more lines he sets the stage for how he will tell his story. “With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword: I quietly take to the ship.”
FootNoteA: Illustration of the final chase of Moby-Dick. By I.W. Taber. 1902. In Moby-Dick. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Public Domain.
FootNoteB: Illustration below from an early edition of Moby Dick – 1892. C.H. Simonds Co. Public Domain.
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