Jerusalem

Finally after many years of traveling I had a opportunity to actually visit places I never been before.

So far, the biggest thrill was recent visit to Israel and of course Jerusalem - though our tourist excursion was rushed, exhausting and left us utterly tired afterwards (2 hours drive back and forth, lots of walking, I fell asleep as soon as I returned back to the ship) I was very happy to visit this ancient city. The moment I stepped inside the city walls there was a wonderful déjà vu feeling of recognition and I was floating on a cloud from happiness. It is truly wonderful old town full of historical architecture and everything is the way I like: crowd didn't bother me, neither people clicking with cameras and mobile phones, I understand it is modern world kind of pilgrimage now (though if you ask me,I would legally forbid all the electronic gadgets because they annoy me). I also had a good luck to visit Jerusalem in December so the weather was actually very nice,almost like a Springtime.

As for religious aspect of the surroundings, well I am not really into that - I watched it all more fascinated with town's awesome history and centuries behind these buildings than stone kissing that was present everywhere. If we are following archeological research, all those places were always actually somewhere else, either little down the road or a bit on the left or down the hill (or somewhere else completely) so it might be that people actually worship wrong stones but never mind - I guess that perhaps just being here in Jerusalem is enough and people probably feel happy and excited in their own way, if they believe, that is enough. My own reaction when faced with stones kissing was confused step back since I am not really into totemism and something inside rebels against outside adoration (it makes much more sense as intense spiritual experience from inside) but I must admit that most of the churches I saw were surprisingly simple and not ever-decorated like they sometimes appear in Europe. The atmosphere of the whole town was very spiritual and one can clearly feel this is a special place from historical,religious or any perspective.

Between other places, I have also visited famous Western Wall that separates town between Jewish and Muslim parts - I placed my hand on the wall and again felt wonderful déjà vu feeling but there was nothing sad about it, more like some ancient DNA recognition of place. Its difficult to talk about it without sounding a looney but I do have my own little opinion about reincarnation and can't explain in any other way why certain places have effect on me. Just as I am sure that I was here before, I am sure I will come again. It doesn't mean that I was jewish or anything like that, but perhaps someone far down the road was a soldier or a pilgrim who had visited Jerusalem before me and that is why my heart felt so happy here. Truly wonderful day.

"Pilgrim" by Timothy Findley

I knew canadian writer Timothy Findley from his excellent novel "Not wanted on voyage" so was naturally excited to lay my hands on "Pilgrim".

Than to my biggest surprise, I realized it all sounds familiar and I had probably read it years ago (wouldn't be surprised to actually find that I have another copy somewhere) but the writing style and the story was so beautiful that I truly enjoyed and upon finishing the last page I was so moved that I could just start reading it all over again. "Pilgrim" is a perfect match between interesting story and superb writing style - sometimes stories are great but writing clumsy or vice versa, not in this case, it is actually one of the best novels I have ever read and I am a lifetime reader.

Pilgrim is the name of a newly arrived patient in a Swiss sanatorium - he consistently tries to kill himself and apparently has no will to live anymore, refuses to talk and the only hint about his past comes from talking in his sleep and his diaries where surprising amount of detailed descriptions of various historical figures intrigues his doctor who is no less than Carl Jung himself.

Jung is the only one in a medical team who actually does not push to bring patients "back to the ground" and respects their different perspective of life, clearly saddened and frustrated when his colleagues don't understand this approach and force logic here deeper understanding might have worked better. Trough the novel there is push-and-pull between him and Pilgrim who is clearly superior intelligence between the two and refuses to co-operate.

It's not only the story but understanding of how people behave and feel that makes me truly love and enjoy Findley's writing - sometimes he simply sketches certain characters that appear only shortly on a page or two and they are equally unforgettable as anybody else. There is a lonely lady who happen to be in the right time & place to take a photo and later we never heard about her again, except we know she lived lonely life full of "what if" and remembering a man who might have loved her, if he only asked. Or a spanish shepherd mentioned in only one chapter but his story somehow stays with the reader trough the rest of the novel,I would love to have the whole book only about him. When the story eventually came to an end I was truly excited - of course it is not the end because we know Pilgrim probably just starts new chapter of his life - I absolutely loved this novel and from now will buy any book by Timothy Findley without hesitation, its really my biggest recommendation.

The Truth Will Out by Brenda James and William Rubinstein

The question of true identity of person(s) who stand behind Shakespeare's masterpieces is a very interesting and intriguing one - even thought the mainstream opinion still holds opinion that no other that "master from Stratford" wrote them, we now surprisingly little about his life except that he left school at the age of 13, have never travelled abroad and could hardly be expected to know court rituals, astrology and science of the time not to mention detailed description of Italian cities. At his death bed William Shakespeare writes what pieces of furniture to be divided between his family and not one word about literary work.

There are numerous candidates of "real Shakespeare" - mostly aristocrats and people connected to the court, even two women (Emilia Lainer and Mary Sidney) who could have hide behind pseudonym but the most interesting theory is about "group work" where various authors used Shakespeare as front man for their political agenda camouflaged as theatre plays. Now we have newest discovery, forgotten aristocrat Sir Henry Neville who had a gift to see but not be seen in a crowd - Neville was gifted writer but hid behind his diplomatic status and is life actually mirrors Shakespeare's plays closely - for example when plays are happy,Neville enjoyed his court position, when plays were dark Neville was imprisoned in Tower for his role in a political coup. There are many interesting little twists and turns in this book written by Brenda James and William Rubinstein (strangely enough, australian research team came to same conclusion independently) and though it makes sense, I could not shake a feeling that it's all a nitpicking - way too much "if", "possibly" and "must have" to actually convince me. It is true that James and Rubinstein believe passionately in their theory but somehow it just sounds far stretched in lack of concrete proof except guesswork. Yes, Neville travelled to Italy, knew the places Shakespeare describes in detail, spoke fluently foreign languages and had privileged education fitting for someone of his background, however after I finished the book the main impression was that I could be pointed as true Shakespeare if someone puts his mind to it.

Sir Henry Neville (curiously enough, nicknamed "Falstaff") is just one of the many aristocrats supposedly educated enough to have been "real Shakespeare". Its interesting mystery and I am still curious about it but not totally convinced - if you ask me, both versions sound possible. I see no problem with Stratford man showing genuine talent in spite of his background or perhaps someone other hiding behind theatre owner and financing public displays of political propaganda carefully camouflaged. Let's hope some documents will eventually be find and real Shakespeare finally get recognition.

Venice calling

The recovery from operation has come to and end - I got a new job coming and leaving home today for another 6 months, that means less writing here but surely I will find occasional moment for my musings. When I was on vacation, it gave me freedom to write almost daily and sometimes even few essays, now I am starting my usual ship drill with far less time for myself, sometimes not even enough for sleep, not to mention writing a blog.

Today I will be in Venice, Italy again. If everything works out as planned, will have overnight rest in a hotel before embarking on another ship tomorrow and than sailing away for another half a year. I actually decided against taking so many books with me, because it turned out too much to carry - I have to be practical sometimes so just selected a few than can fit in my backpack, surely I will collect many more along the way. Teddy Bear goes with me of course, he always does.

Stay tuned!

"Decoy" (1946)

"Decoy" is an interesting and completely forgotten 1946 film noir with excellent Jean Gillie as a main female lead.

Gillie is actually one of the most interesting female baddies in these classic old movies as she will do everything to get her boyfriend out of the prison, just to find where he keeps the hidden money. Not that she loves him - it's clear she enjoys his presents, clothes and perfumes - but cleverly she twists several men around her little finger in order to make them do what she wants, including aggressive gangster, naive doctor and even a police detective. The plot has interesting twist where Gillie finds out that body can be brought back to life after it has been killed in a gas chamber, so she arranges doctor to steal and revive her prison boyfriend who is on a death row, in order to get the secret out of him. The guy actually comes back to life like some new Frankestein and stumbles towards horrified Gillie who might be calm as a snake but this is a bit much for her. I won't explain the whole story here because I believe film reviews should just cover introduction without spoiling anything for potential audience but somehow this little forgotten movie works very well even in its limited budget and its a nice discovery from a wonderful golden years of cinema.

Her husband Jack Bernhard directed this movie and it was noticed as one of the most interesting female roles in film noir cinema at the time.

Sadly, beautiful Jean Gillie died of pneumonia at the age of 33 so this is the reason why she is not better remembered today.

Dionne sings Dionne (1998)

While other of her contemporaries fell aside long ago, always poised and elegant Dionne Warwick keeps her head above the water with style, even though big recording companies are not behind her now - as usual, ageism promotes fresh faces to a teenage audiences, completely ignoring the fact that veterans are still alive & well and have lost none of their talent.

The case in point is Warwick who once was best-selling artist with classic music legacy behind her. She was the muse behind best work by Burt Bacharach and amassed some nice pop hits later in 1970s and 1980s but her mellow pop somehow got pushed aside with rap and what not. This album tries valiantly to prove that Warwick is still contemporary singer, even if this means re-recording some of her older material in a new modern arrangements. In most of the cases this means that new versions don't bring anything really earth-shattering, exceptions are completely re-imaniged and joyful "Always Something There To Remind Me" that wouldn't be out of place on Paul Simon's "Graceland" album and "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" dressed up in tropical clothes. These two songs works so well that one wonders why producers were not so brave with the rest of Warwick's pop classics instead of keeping them more or less the same. To beef up the album we also have handful of new ballads that present all the magic of Warwick's still magic, husky voice that now sounds deeper than ever before (I always preferred her mature voice to a young 1960s Warwick). New songs are all very pretty and show that Warwick don't need any "modernization" to keep her interesting as she sounds most comfortable in slow-burning ballads, the best of the bunch being probably "All Kinds Of People" that I remember from a Jerry Butler old album, truly a soulful gem with a spiritual meaning and without any vocal excess popular today. Ending on a spiritual note, "Humbly I Pray" is a gentle gospel song that tells a lot about mature Warwick at this point in her life and career.

I might not be so enamored with re-recordings of old hits but love new material.

"The Uninvited" (1944)

The previous film I mentioned was "Laura" with its haunting music theme that became a pop standard. Imagine my surprise when I started watching "The Uninvited"(1944) and during opening heard a melody I quickly recognized as "Stella by Starlight" by Victor Young! Yes, this song was actually introduced in this movie about haunted house.

"The Uninvited" looks and feels very much like movies by Val Lewton ("Cat people") but it was only inspired with his work, director here is Lewis Allen. Apparently "Rebecca" left a lot of people scratching heads and wanting to do something similar so there were quite a few movies made in early 1940s emulating gothic approach with strange houses with even stranger past,dead people who won't go away and always a female villain somewhere in there. Today almost completely forgotten Ray Milland was a busy man that year as he made "The Uninvited" back to back with Fritz Lang's "Ministry of Fear" - here again he is a good natured guy who just happens to be surrounded with most bizarre twists and turns of the story. Milland and his sister stumble upon a very pretty house on a atlantic coast (dangerously close to cliffs,if you ask me,just asking for accident to happen) and decide to buy it on the spot even though they are warned that previous tenants mentioned disturbing noise - from than on story goes in expected direction and though is an old fashioned movie it still works fine for people like me who love old black & white movies. Strangely enough I wasn't really interested in the main characters but really noticed completely off the wall part of Barbara Everest as "Miss Bird" patient in sanatorium and she was cutest little neurotic.

The best thing about this movie (along with a beautiful Victor Young song) is surprising turn by excellent Cornelia Otis Skinner who shows up in a second part of the movie - so far we never had a glimpse of her and suddenly she arrives on a screen like a dark cloud towering above everybody else. She is very authoritative and strong willed owner of mentioned sanatorium and somehow spiritual sister of the housekeeper from "Rebecca" - very soon we get that Skinner has obsession with a beautiful lady who was previous owner of the haunted house and there is something between the lines that suggest that she is either a lesbian or a loony herself (which in 1944 was probably the same thing - the only way gay characters were ever shown in a movies back than was like madmen, villains or caricatures). Just as unexpectedly as she arrives on the screen, Skinner is than unceremoniously dropped out and we never heard about her again, which is a pity as she was by far the most interesting person in the movie - I cared for her much more than for Gail Russell (Stella from the song) who was supposed to be innocent centre of ghosts attentions. We actually see ghosts on a few occasions but this was quite unnecessary because things are scarier when not seen,in my opinion.

I was so intrigued with Skinner that I needed to check her on internet and yes, just as I expected she had a strong theatre background.

Antologija CD Box by Josipa Lisac

As newly independent Croatia broke away from the past, the biggest recording company "Jugoton" became "Croatia records" and started milking its archives (the trend that unfortunately continued to this day) instead of focusing on new artists. Perhaps 50+ years of documented music were somehow more interesting than new recordings,who knows. In all honesty we can admit that golden years of pop music are behind us now because the whole profession had more dignity and meaning in times when people were not concerned with harsh reality of survival like today.

However, the first artist who was honored with CD box of complete works (studio albums) in Croatia was not any of the biggest commercial movers & shakers because they come and go,but somebody who endured decades and inspired countless other musicians - undisputed rock queen Josipa Lisac, brave and eccentric lady who never sold tons of records but from the start enjoyed massive amount of respect for her talent. I remember clearly when this CD box came out that my girlfriend nonchalantly said "well,who else?" about the fact that from the whole recorded history of "Jugoton"/"Croatia records" Lisac was the one with legacy worth releasing complete on CD. Where other artists had occasional spark of inspiration in their times, Lisac was the one who continuously went step above expectations and stayed contemporary, no matter what musical trends were in fashion.

As her complete studio albums collection shows, Lisac was exceptional voice from the very start in late 1960s and sounded intriguing even in the festival "schlager" music of the day.,surrounded with strings,huge orchestras and bombastic orchestration. Instead of staying there, she moved quickly towards jazz-rock territory and distanced herself from generation that would fall out of fashion very soon,building reputation as a rock singer and in process winning younger audience who supported her trough decades. Most of her output here was composed by her own composer/partner Karlo Metikoš who worked as her teacher/mentor/Pygmalion and though their collaboration is now classic and legendary, I wish she worked with other people some more (everybody gets very upset when I mention this). The point in the case are several uninspired early 1980s LPs and than sudden renaissance with album "Boginja" (The Goddess) where other composers got chance to shine - it was her most commercially successful release in many years and gave her career completely new wings.

Along with Lisac's usual studio albums (mostly presented as two-on-one CD) this box gives us complete recording of rock-opera "Gubec beg" (1975) and english version of album "Made in USA" that was originally released in croatian version in 1979. Of course I had all this stuff from the times of their original release (in multiple versions, tapes AND vinyl) but had to get CD box as well. For a completist like me extra CD with singles and guest performances would have been added bonus,but unfortunately this time we got only albums. So far only Oliver Dragojević got the similar treatment and his discography is far less varied than Lisac who worked in jazz,rock,pop,classical and many other genres. Good thing about this CD box is that it introduced her work to a generation of younger audience who was perhaps not aware of all this.