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Tuesday 26 April 2016

In Mondo Novo

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A pot over a bonfire was placed on the tracks of a railway station turned into a makeshift camp, crowded by migrants and refugees at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Monday, April 25, 2016. Many thousands of migrants remain at the Greek border with Macedonia, hoping that the border crossing will reopen, allowing them to move north into central Europe. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) 
A pot over a bonfire was placed on the tracks of a railway station turned into a makeshift camp, crowded by migrants and refugees at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece today. Many thousands of migrants remain at the Greek border with Macedonia, hoping that the border crossing will reopen, allowing them to move north into central Europe.: photo by Gregorio Borgia/AP, 25 April 2016


GREECE - A refugee man eats his dinner in a tent at a makeshift camp near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


Two children chat under a plastic cover that keeps their temporary home somehow waterproof, #Idomeni #RefugeeCrisis: image via Daphne Tolis @daphnetoli, 24 April 2016


A refugee girl rests next to a tent at makeshift camp at Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar @AFP: image via Sophie Chauveau, 21 April 2016 


A refugee woman hangs out the washing at makeshift camp at Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar @AFP: image via Sophie Chauveau, 21 April 2016 


341 Syrian (211 children) #refugees given shelter at an abandoned beach resort in southern Greece: image via Aris Messinis @ArisMessinis, 25 April 2016


SYRIA - Smoke is seen rising in the Salihin neighbourhood of Aleppo following an air strike. By Karam Al-Masri #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


SYRIA - Rebel and regime bombardment killed civilians on 3rd day of renewed violence in Aleppo. By Ameer Alhalbi @AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 April 2016


Aleppo city shortly before the shelling from government forces: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 23 April 2016


Aleppo burns shelled by government forces and the international community''s silence: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 23  April 2016

Residents and civil defence members inspect a damaged building after an airstrike on the rebel-held Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria April 23, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail

Residents and civil defence members inspect a damaged building after an airstrike on the rebel-held Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria
: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail /Reuters, 23 April 2016
At least 60 killed in Aleppo violence in past three days, monitor says: Reuters, 25 April 2016

At least 60 people have been killed in three days of fighting in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as violence continues to escalate. Seven children and 10 women were among those killed in a series of air strikes by the government side and shelling attacks by insurgents since Friday, the monitoring group said.
 

Fighting has intensified in Syria in recent weeks, all but destroying a partial ceasefire that took effect at the end of February. Last week, the main opposition walked out of formal talks in Geneva.
 

Beginning early on Friday, government warplanes bombed a number of rebel-held parts of Aleppo, control of which is split between the warring sides. 

The government air raids killed 45 people, the monitoring group said.
 

Insurgent bombardments, including the use of home-made rockets and gas canisters fired as shells, meanwhile killed 15 people on the government-held western side.
 

The city was calmer on Monday but shells were still being fired onto government-held areas, said the British-based Observatory, which tracks the war using sources on the ground.
 

Syria's foreign ministry said it sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council to protest what it called terrorist attacks on populated areas in Aleppo and Damascus on Saturday, the state news agency SANA reported.
 

It said the shellings violated the cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by the United States and Russia, which took effect in western parts of the country in February.
 

The United Nations is anxious to salvage the Geneva negotiations, which are the most serious attempt to end the five-year-old civil war.
 

The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has vowed to continue the fragile peace talks despite the walkout by the opposition and signs that both sides are gearing up to escalate the war, which has killed more than 250,000 people.


 
"#Syria is better". Refugees stranded in #Macedonia yearning for reopening of Balkan route: image via China Xinhua News Verified account @XHNews, 25 April 2016


WEST BANK - Israelis picnic near Al-Auja in the Jordan Valley during the Jewish Passover holiday. By @menahemkahana: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


YEMEN - Yemenis visiting Dar al-Hajar which is perched atop a rock pinnacle at Wadi Dhahr valley. By Mohammed Huwais: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


YEMEN - The Dar al-Hajar (Rock Palace) perched atop a rock pinnacle at the Wadi Dhahr valley. By MOHAMMED HUWAIS: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


GREECE - A refugee child carries blankets outside the old international airport in Athens. By @atzortzinis #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


TURKEY - Merkel, EU officials arrive for Turkey visit on migrant deal. By @yasinnakgul #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


TURKEY - Refugees wait for the German Chancellor during her visit at a refugee camp in Gaziantep. By @AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


MACEDONIA - A group of Syrians rests after illegally crossing Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija. By Joe Klamar: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


GREECE - A girl stands at entrance of "the Idomeni Cultural Center" at makeshift camp for migrants. By Joe Klamar: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


GREECE - A child refugee plays with a tortoise at makeshift camp for migrants and refugees near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


GREECE - Refugee men attend a silent protest at the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni. By @Joe Klamar #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 April 2016


GREECE - A refugee pushes a stroller with her baby at makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 April 2016


GREECE - A refugee man sells eggs at makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 April 2016


SYRIA - A member of Kurdish internal security forces inspects the Alaya prison in Qamishli. By @Delilsouleman #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 April 2016


Clashes following a demo against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in Kfar Qaddum. By Jaafar Ashtiyeh: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 April 2016



GREECE - A refugee girl wears her father's shoes as she plays with a ball at makeshift camp near Idomeni. By Joe Klamar #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 22 April 2016

Empress of Darkness


Hillary Clinton is up 62.7% to 37.8% against Bernie Sanders with 2 percent of precincts counted.
: image via Reuters Live @ReutersLive, 19 April 2016



LIVE: New Yorkers head to the polls. Follow the action: #Election2016: image via Reuters Live @ReutersLive, 19 April 2016

Friedrich Hölderlin: Griechenland: "Toward wooded Avignon" (Wanderings of the European Mind)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Wassen_Gotthardpost_1845.jpg


Gotthardpost at Wassen: aquatint by Weber after drawing by Straub, 1845; image by Adrian Michel, July 2007, from Artur Wyss-Niederer: Sankt Gotthard

...........................Ways of the wanderer!
For......................Shadows of the trees

And hills, under sun, where

The path leads

To the church,

.......................Rain

And trees, drowsing

Beneath the heavy tread of the sun,

For even so, even as it burns higher,

Over the steaming cities

Hang curtains of rain

For like ivy it dangles

Down without branches. Beautiful but

Now the ways yield

Fresher blossoms

To the wanderer

.....all outdoors sways.....as a field of grain.
Toward wooded Avignon over the Gotthard
Toils the steed. Laurels
Whisper above Vergil, so that
The sun does not 
Unmanfully search out his grave. 
Moss roses
Wax upon the Alps. Flowers start up 
At the city gates, on the level untended paths 
Like crystal growth in fallow wastes of the sea floor. 
Gardens bloom round Windsor. On high 
Arrives from London
The carriage of the King. Lovely gardens 
Relieve the season.
By the canal. Deep below however lies
The even sea, glowing.
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843): Griechenland (Greece), Hymnal Draft, first version, 1803, translation by TC
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Fl%C3%BCelen_Schiffl%C3%A4nde_1820.jpg
Schifflände Flüelen: colored aquatint by Hürlimann after a drawing by Gabriel Lory, 1820: image by Adrian Michel, June 2007, from Artur Wyss-Niederer: Sankt-Gotthard

                                 Wege des Wanderers!
Denn                        Schatten der Bäume
Und Hügel, sonnig, wo
Der Weg geht
Zur Kirche,
                      Reegen, wie Pfeilenregen
Und Bäume stehen, schlummernd, doch
Eintreffen Schritte der Sonne,
Denn eben so, wie sie heißer
Brennt über der Städte Dampf
So gehet über des Reegens
Behangene Mauren die Sonne

Wie Epheu nemlich hänget
Astlos der Reegen herunter. Schöner aber
Blühn Reisenden die Wege
      im Freien            wechselt wie Korn.
Avignon waldig über den Gotthardt
Tastet das Roß, Lorbeern
Rauschen um Virgilius und daß
Die Sonne nicht
Unmänlich suchet, das Grab. Moosrosen
Wachsen
Auf den Alpen. Blumen fangen
Vor Thoren der Stadt an, auf geebneten Wegen unbegünstiget
Gleich Krystallen in der Wüste wachsend des Meers.
Gärten wachsen um Windsor. Hoch
Ziehet, aus London,
Der Wagen des Königs.
Schöne Gärten sparen die Jahrzeit.
Am Canal. Tief aber liegt
Das ebene Weltmeer, glühend.
Friedrich Hölderlin: Hymnische Entwürfe: Griechenland, Erste Fassung, 1803

The Hölderlinian correspondences, those sudden connections between ancient and modern scenes and figures, stand in the most profound relationship to the paratactic method. Beissner too noted Hölderlin's tendency to mix eras together, to connect things that are remote and unconnected; the principle of such associations, which is the opposite of the discursive principle, is reminiscent of the serial ordering of grammatical parts. Poetry wrested both from the zone of madness, where the flight of ideas thrives, as does the readiness of many schizophrenics to see anything real as a sign of something hidden, to encumber it with meaning.
 
-- Theodor Adorno: Parataxis: On Hölderlin's Late Poetry, a talk given at the annual conference of the Hölderlin-Gesellschaft, Berlin, 7 June 1963; revised version first published in Die Neue Rundschau, 1964; translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen in Theodor Adorno: Notes to Literature, Volume Two, 1992



Landscape of the Alps: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1552-1554, pen and sepia ink (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
The Fall of Rome

Members of the Gruppo Storico Romano (Roman Historical Group) dressed as gladiator stands at Circus Maximus as they mark the 2769th anniversary of the founding of Rome...A member of the Gruppo Storico Romano (Roman Historical Group) dressed as a gladiator stands at Circus Maximus as they mark the 2769th anniversary of the founding of Rome, Italy, April 24, 2016.   REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi      TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A member of the Gruppo Storico Romano (Roman Historical Group) dressed as a gladiator stands at Circus Maximus as they mark the 2769th anniversary of the founding of Rome, Italy: photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters 25 April 2016

Members of the Gruppo Storico Romano (Roman Historical Group) dressed as gladiator stands at Circus Maximus as they mark the 2769th anniversary of the founding of Rome...A member of the Gruppo Storico Romano (Roman Historical Group) dressed as a gladiator stands at Circus Maximus as they mark the 2769th anniversary of the founding of Rome, Italy, April 24, 2016.   REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi      TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A member of the Gruppo Storico Romano (Roman Historical Group) dressed as a gladiator stands at Circus Maximus as they mark the 2769th anniversary of the founding of Rome, Italy: photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters 25 April 2016
 
File:Benitachel, Spain.jpg

Benitachel, Eastern Spain: photo by Sebastian Vaida, 2008

W.H. Auden: The Fall of Rome
                                    
                                            (For Cyril Connolly)

The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extoll the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

W.H. Auden (1907-1973): The Fall of Rome, from Nones (1961)

File:Herd of Caribou.jpg

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus), Suomi, near Ihari, Finland: photo by Lukas Riebling, 2005

Kyrgyz military personnel show their skills during an exercises at a military base, 10 km outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz military personnel show their skills during an exercises at a military base, near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA, 25 April 2016

Chionji Temple Recreates The Moment Of Buddhist Patriarch Death...KYOTO, JAPAN - APRIL 25:  People dressed as 25 Buddhist saints march at the Chionji temple on April 23, 2016 in Kyoto, Japan. This tri-annual ceremony which is split into three parts, a procession, a passing along of the largest prayer beads in Japan and a ritual to the cemetery to pay respects to the dead, is to commemorate the death of Honen, a patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism, recreating the moment when Honen was escorted by Amida-nyorai, the principal Buddha and 25 saints to the Pure Land at the time of his death.  (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

People dressed as 25 Buddhist saints march at the Chionji temple in Kyoto, Japan.This tri-annual ceremony which is split into three parts, a procession, a passing along of the largest prayer beads in Japan and a ritual to the cemetery to pay respects to the dead: photo by Carl Court / FT Photo Diary, 25 April 2016
Product Placement, or Business Along the Great Trade Route (In Mondo Novo)



Virtual reality: President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel sample the latest tech in Hanover: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 25 April 2016


Virtual reality: President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel sample the latest tech in Hanover: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 25 April 2016

US President Barack Obama visits Germany...epa05276425 German†Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) tests a Virtual Reality (VR) goggle next to US†President Barack Obama (L) as they visit the booth of ifm electronic (automation engineering) at the Hannover Messe industrial technology trade fair in Hanover,†Germany, 25 April 2016. The USA is this year's partner country at the trade fair. The US President is on a two-day visit to Germany.  EPA/CHRITSTIAN†CHARISIUS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tests a Virtual Reality (VR) goggle next to US President Barack Obama as they visit the booth of ifm electronic (automation engineering) at the Hannover Messe industrial technology trade fair in Hanover, Germany: photo by Christian Charisius/EPA, 25 April 2016

US President Barack Obama visits Germany...epa05276425 German†Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) tests a Virtual Reality (VR) goggle next to US†President Barack Obama (L) as they visit the booth of ifm electronic (automation engineering) at the Hannover Messe industrial technology trade fair in Hanover,†Germany, 25 April 2016. The USA is this year's partner country at the trade fair. The US President is on a two-day visit to Germany.  EPA/CHRITSTIAN†CHARISIUS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tests a Virtual Reality (VR) goggle next to US President Barack Obama as they visit the booth of ifm electronic (automation engineering) at the Hannover Messe industrial technology trade fair in Hanover, Germany: photo by Christian Charisius/EPA, 25 April 2016


Mondo Novo: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 1791, detached fresco, 205 x 525 cm (Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice)



Mondo Novo: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, 1791, detached fresco, 205 x 525 cm (Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice)

2 comments:

Hazen said...

When the inescapably real Reality™ isn’t working worth shit for the summiteers, the virtual sort will just have to do. Pass the pixels please.

TC said...

Seeing O'B out on the global carpetbagging circuit hawking high-end electronic toys had to comprise the new low point of his regime for me.

I get that it's all about the TPP, "our" various new recovered-memory Special Relationships (!!), capital aggregation and agglomeration consolidation and do-a-deal-as-a-way-of-life, of course. All that good stuff. Trade fairs Good. Mmm Want a cookie. But to stoop to acting as a hardware spokesman, my heavens.

I couldn't keep the phrase Death of a salesman out of mind, though I expect one equipped with a Reality™VR headset need never actually die... just change the channel, and fade away into the expensive-plate speechmaking, the foundation and the legacy.