Humber Super Snipe

John | 30 November, 2011 - 1:02 am

It’s not uncommon for me to make small edits and adjustments to my blog posts after I’ve published them.  In most cases I do it after I’ve read my post next day, when I can see small typos, or perhaps see clearer or more accurate ways to express myself in one or several sentences.   However, in this case I’ve made significant changes to the original post I published last night, and that includes the featured image on the home page.   The new image was put together in Photoshop from an advert that you can see below in a B&W image of a magazine spread.

My original post started off by writing that my 2010 model Lexus IS 250 is without doubt the most reassuring car I’ve driven since  I sold my 1960 Humber Super Snipe in 1975 and bought an imported  Datsun 180B.  I used to love the Humber Super Snipe, which I inherited from my father who passed away in 1964.   It was a large imported car from Britain, with a 3 litre 6 cylinder in-line engine that developed 130 bhp.  It had disk brakes and automatic transmission, and a polished wood dashboard.  It was a true luxury car in its day.  The photo below was taken on a day trip with my parents to Carpenter’s Rocks in south east South Australia, an hours drive from our home at Mount Gambier.  My father took the photo.

 

I’ve always been a great fan of Humber cars, and the Super Snipe and the Pullman limousine in particular, for many years, so I was thrilled when my father bought the Super Snipe  in 1960.

I’ll now go back in time to 1954, and the the Humber Super Snipe of the day, as shown in the featured image.  You can see the original advert (in B&W) in the image below from the UK Daily Telegraph - a special issue perhaps.   As you can see, the pages have aged.  On the left page you can see the original advert for the 1954 Humber Super Snipe, and on the right page you can see (if you look closely) a map of the world showing the Queen’s journey around the world in 1954.

After her Coronation in June 1953, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent 6 months in 1954 touring the world, including several months Australia and New Zealand.  They travelled by sea on the Gothic.  As part of this trip they spent a day in Mount Gambier.  I had graduated from High School the year before and had begun work at The Commercial Bank of Australia Limited.  The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh flew into Mount Gambier and landed at the airport about 5 miles north of our home.  The only route from the airport to the town was past our home.  From our front lawn I saw the royal visitors on their way into town and on their return to the airport.

The Queen and Duke travelled in an open 4-door version of the Humber Super Snipe in the above advert.  My father took the photo below at Vansittart Park in the near central part of  Mount Gambier.   The open Humber Super Snipe was a custom built vehicle, and as you can see, it’s not a convertible, which would be 2-door.

The town Mayor (Mr Marks as I recall) and his wife are standing in front of the car to welcome the royal visitors.

Here is a shot of the Queen and Duke at the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier.  I don’t suppose they remember the scene as they went through so much in a few months.  My head would be reeling if I ever did what they did.   But the photo holds magic for me.  It shows the young Queen and the Duke at the main scenic spot in the South Australian country town I was born and grew up in.

 

Here’s another shot of the royal Humber.

As I mentioned about, the Royal Tour in 1954 was in the year after the Coronation.  One of the greatly admired guests at the Coronation was Queen Salote of Tonga, seen below.

Sadly, Queen Salote died in 1965, and her son reigned as King Tupou IV, until his death in 2006.  He was succeeded by King George Tupou V.  The photo below shows a scene after the coronation of Tupou V,  in his Humber Pullman.

and

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Duetti – Philippe Jaroussky

John | 27 November, 2011 - 12:45 am

If you were intrigued by, or perhaps even enjoyed the videos in my recent post about Philippe Jaroussky, then here is another video. You might need to brush up on your French, if you have any, or just bear with the brief commentary.

To be honest, I’m still not sure whether I like Philippe Jaroussky and his countertenor voice, but he crops up in so many recordings these days that he’s beginning to grow on me. I can honestly say that I enjoy the above video, for the most part, because it’s so lively and rhythmic, and at times quite beautiful.

Some months ago, I ordered Gabriel Faure’s Requiem from Presto Classical and deliberately avoided the latest recording, in which Philippe Jaroussky sings Pie Jesu, and instead chose the Accentus recording where it is sung by a soprano. But I also chose the Accentus recording because it features the original scoring of the work – organ with chamber orchestra minus violins – and this scoring resulted in the solo violin in the Sanctus to cause a reviewer for Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 to write:

We defy any sensitive soul not to be transported into a state of near rapture by the unspeakably delicious Sanctus, the solo violin of Luc Héry floating ethereally above the choral and orchestral textures like a skylark in full song.

Here is the Pie Jesu from the Faure Requiem sung by a soprano.

The Pie Jesu by Gabriel Faure, much the same as the Pie Jesu by Andrew Lloyd Webber, can be sung to great and moving effect by a soprano, young boy, or it now seems, by a countertenor.

So here is a version of extracts from the Faure Requiem sung by the King’s College Choir:

So that brings us to Philippe Jaroussky singing Pie Jesu by Faure. And I should confess that I have relented and have now ordered this version.

And finally, for the record, here is Pie Jesu by Andrew Lloyd Webber, sung by Sarah Brightman and a young choir boy.

However, I can’t sign off on this post without giving you one more video with Philippe Jaroussky. It’s the Toccata by Claudio Monteverdi, performed by Christina Pluhar, an Austrian born specialist in early music and baroque, based in Paris since 1992.

I like the way the video begins. While the titles play I can feel the ambiance of a concert hall. And then the performers walk on stage. That part surprised me. Very noisy ambience. But then silence falls, and the baroque instruments begin playing with a very rhythmic tune. Up to this moment I was thoroughly enjoying it. And then Philippe Jaroussky begins singing. I’m sorry to say this killed my enjoyment. From that moment on I found it difficult going.

I’ve played the video again several times, but so far, I can’t imagine that I’ll ever truly warm to it. To be fair, I think it’s the song not the singer.

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Modernist Cuisine

John | 16 November, 2011 - 11:53 pm

Today was my birthday.  I spent it quietly doing the mid-week wash, and answering phone calls from early in the morning to late evening. It was most enjoyable, and great to hear from and chat to so many dear friends. I also had several very welcome emails. One of the things many friends asked me was whether I had treated or indulged myself in any way, and the answer was no.  To be honest, I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted.  Although I did reply to one friend that if I go to Chadstone shopping centre tomorrow I’ll buy a tin of Ortiz tuna ($29.95) as a treat.

So it’s rather strange that tonight I got an email from Amazon advertising several cooking books. I’ve always been a huge fan of cooking books, to read and drool over rather than cook recipes. I always swear that I’ll never buy another cooking book, until I see the next one I can’t resist.

The first book I looked at tonight in the Amazon email was The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook: 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America’s Most Trusted Cooking Magazine [Hardcover]. You can look inside it here.

It’s quite a big book at 928 pages, and weighs 4.6 lbs. I like the look of this book as Cook’s Illustrated recipes work well, and in this book it explains why the recipes work.  I like that type of explanation.  In a quick browse tonight I was interested to read that I cut onions the wrong way for caramelizing. I cut them around the equator, so to speak, but they should be cut from pole to pole.  However, it is an American book with many recipes for foods we just don’t eat here.

The second cookbook I looked at is the reason for this post.  I was gobsmacked when I read about it.  Whereas the Cook’s Illustrated book weighs 4.6 lbs, the ink alone in the second book weighs about 4 lbs.  The whole book (in 6 volumes) weighs 40 lbs.  For me, that’s a nightmare.  I dislike handling big heavy books.  Perhaps it’s an age thing, as I have a bit of arthritis in my hands.

The book is called Modernist Cuisine.   I’m not sure it’s a book I’d really like, or find useful.  It seems to have many sections devoted to cooking with professional equipment and techniques, such as sous vide equipment, not available to home cooks.  As mentioned above, I’m not a fan of big and heavy books,  and with this book, the price alone is enough to eliminate any interest – $625 full price or $451,59 on Amazon.com.   However, it is a book with spectacular photography or art work, like the image above, and I thought it worth making a post about it, to bring the book to your attention.

The book has a website at http://modernistcuisine.com/ where you can read more about the book, download a PDF file and a 4Mb brochure.   The website also has a blog and lots of links, including to video, etc.  The Reviews page is full of rave reviews.

The following is a Vimeo video promoting the book.

Warning:  In basic terms, sous vide cooking involves cooking slowly at temperatures below the boiling point of water and at the temperature at which you plan to eat the food.  One needs to be aware of the health risks when cooking at temperatures which might not kill all the bacteria.

 

 

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Mahler Symphony No. 8

John | 13 November, 2011 - 11:11 pm

My last post, about the new Fleet Foxes album Helplessness Blues, featured the title soundtrack.  But the post also featured a video promotion extract from the new Blu-ray recording of Mahler’s Symphony No.8.  Ralph made a comment that he enjoyed the Fleet Foxes recording, and (not his words) politely implied that the Mahler was taking time to grow on him.  Well Ralph has nothing to be concerned about.   The video, which runs for 4 min 21 secs, only gives a very brief and scant view of the symphony which can run for 90 minutes, depending on the tempo of the conductor.  The video is too short to give newcomers to the work a reasonable opportunity to appreciate the symphony.

Besides that, my first and only acquaintance with Mahler was when I bought his Symphony No 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Solti on cassette tape in the 1970′s.  It’s a 1964 recording.  I’d never bought a Mahler recording since, on either cassette tape, LP or CD.

But my enjoyment of the work must have stuck in my mind, because this year, after buying the Olive O4HD and then discovering Presto Classical as a great new source of buying classical CDs, I went Mahler mad, and soon bought two collections of his complete works, and have since bought several individual symphonies for the particular performance.

To be honest, in my short acquaintance this year with the complete works of Mahler, the 8th Symphony has seemed confusing to me, as it seemed to comprise two totally disparate movements.  The awesome 1st movement and the non-event 2nd movement.  I’m only now beginning to realise that there are musical links between the two movements.  When you listen to the whole work, the quieter second movement gradually develops and proceeds towards the stunning finale.  If one is able to concentrate on listening in suitable surroundings. the symphony can become an emotional experience.

The following is a short overview of the symphony, for the purposes of this post.  I’ve taken the material from Wikipedia, but have edited it and rewritten parts of it to suit this post.  Thanks to Wikipedia for the information.   Check the full article here.

The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the “Symphony of a Thousand“, although the work is often performed with fewer than a thousand, and Mahler himself did not sanction the name.

The work was composed in the summer of 1906.  Mahler conducted its first performance in Munich on 12 September 1910.

The structure of the work is unconventional; instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts.

Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus (“Come, Creator Spirit”), and Part II is a setting of the secular text from the closing passages from Goethe’s 19th-century dramatic poem Faust.  The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.

This leads me  into presenting a series of YouTube videos of the Mahler 8th, recorded by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain with Sir Simon Rattle conducting.

This is a very interesting series of videos.  As best as I can make out, it’s a recording of a live performance at the Albert Hall, and is not available elsewhere, either as a CD or as a DVD.  If you look carefully at the Hall you will signs for the BBC Proms.  These videos could be from the 2002 Proms, at which Simon Rattle conducted Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

The videos are cut into segments under 10 minutes as required by YouTube at the time the videos were posted.  Unfortunately, this results in abrupt endings to some videos before you pick up the continuing action in the next video.  The videos have Japanese subtitles, which is not helpful to English speakers, and it looks a little odd.  At first I thought it must be a recording of a concert in Japan, but then I began to notice the unmistakable interior of the Albert Hall.   I’m grateful to The Chrome Dragon that the videos are there at all, and in such good video and audio quality.

So here goes.  By the way, feel free to dive all over the place in the videos to become familiar with what to expect.  And perhaps even watch the last video (Second Movement part 6) first, to hear what the whole work leads up to at its tumultuous finale.

If you can’t appreciate the beauty of this symphony, I’m sorry to say that I suspect you have no soul.

And note that it is a Youth Orchestra.  The players are all so young – and talented.  The singers and choir are mature performers.

INTERMISSION

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Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

John | 1 November, 2011 - 1:19 am

Several weeks ago I ordered from Readings in Malvern, the Blu-ray DVD recording of Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Riccardo Chailly conducting.  To quote from the Presto Classical website for this recording - Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is arguably the grandest and most ambitious piece of symphonic music ever written.   It’s certainly impressive.

Last Friday, Readings rang me to say the DVD had arrived, so on yesterday I drove to Malvern to collect it.  While I was in the store a CD playing that I fell in love with.  The music and orchestration stirred so many emotions in me, thst I asked the name of it, and bought it.  Here is the title track:  (The video comprises only still photos, but at least you can hear the music.)

There are many other tracks on the CD that also excite me.  While this is a CD released in the USA on 2 May this year, it has songs that have the sound and beauty of music I loved in the 1970′s, some 40 years ago, when I was in  my 30′s.

And just for the record, here is a video extract of the Blu-ray DVD that I ordered and collected on Monday. This is a spectacular work.  Watch it full screen if you can, with stereo hi-fi sound.

Click on the 4 arrows at bottom right of the video to go full screen.

 

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The Queen and Duke leave Australia

John | 30 October, 2011 - 11:54 pm

Yesterday afternoon, Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh attended an event in Perth called The Queen’s Great Aussie BBQ.  The Perth crowds that turned out to see the Queen’s drive to the event, or attend the event itself, were estimated at figures from 100,000 to 200,000.  The above photo from The Telegraph of London shows some of the crowd, many of which are waving the Western Australia flag with the black swan emblem inside a yellow circle.

What is known for sure, is that 130,000 sausages were ordered for the BBQ.  After the official reception and speeches at the BBQ, including the Queen’s only speech at a public gathering during this visit, the Queen and the Duke then moved among the crowds.

After the BBQ, the Queen and Duke proceeded to the airport in Perth, where they boarded their aircraft and departed Australia.

Just in case you think the royal couple will be taking a well deserved rest after returning to the UK, I’ve read that the Duke, at age 90, will fly to Italy a day or two after arriving home to attend meetings relating to his causes.

Here is a summary of the 2011 visit from The Telegraph:

Australians turn out in their thousands to say goodbye the Queen.

Tens of thousands turned out to bid the Queen farewell at the end of an 11 day tour of Australia with the Duke of Edinburgh.  

It was a trip that began with controversy over the absence of a Prime Ministerial curtsy, but Australia’s enduring admiration for the monarchy was evident as vast crowds turned out to bid their farewells.

More than 150,000 people gathered on the banks of the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia, for the Queen’s appearance at the “Great Aussie Barbecue”, her final engagement of an 11-day tour with the Duke of Edinburgh.

Visibly moved by the thousands of well-wishers, the Queen, 85, spoke of feeling “overwhelmed” by the rapturous reception she and the Duke have received throughout their tour.

“We have enjoyed this visit immensely and thank all those who have come out to welcome us,” she said. “We have been overwhelmed by your kindness and support.

“Once again, we will return to the United Kingdom with fond memories of our time here and the warm Australian welcome we have received on our 16th visit to this beautiful country.”

Buckingham Palace has insisted it was not the Queen’s valedictory visit, but from the size of the crowds that turned out to see her yesterday, many Australians appeared to take the opportunity to bid a final farewell to their monarch.

The event attempted to break the world record for the largest ever barbecue, with 130,000 sausages, 8,000 loaves of bread and 150,000 drinks laid on for the occasion.

Prince Philip, 90, who is famous for his royal barbecues at Balmoral where he serves visitors himself, did not disappoint, flipping steaks and chops as he greeted the crowds.

Vincent Garreffa, a chef manning one of the barbecue stalls, said: “We had a rib-eye steak and a pork cutlet which were waiting to be turned, and he did us proud.”

But the Prince declined Mr Garreffa’s offer to sample some of Perth’s finest seafood, including an array of barbecued prawns and crayfish. “I’m not in the mood,” he said.

Wearing a pink floral dress under a white cropped jacket, the Queen took a walkabout through vast crowd, accepting dozens of bouquets from well-wishers who had braved the midday heat to greet her.

Royal aides have expressed their “amazement” at the response to the Queen and the Duke during their visit, which saw 45,000 people gather to watch them take a boat ride down the Brisbane River last week.

The tour, which saw the Queen and the Duke visit Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, has already secured its place in history with the landmark decision at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth to end the primogeniture rules for royal succession.

As head of the Commonwealth, the Queen is believed to have backed the change to the law, and attended the meeting at CHOGM with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who announced on Friday that he had secured the unanimous agreement of all 16 member states.

On Saturday, Mr Cameron praised the Queen for her international “leadership”.

He said: “One of the things that unites the Commonwealth is huge admiration and respect for Her Majesty the Queen and the leadership she has given. It brings us together and unites us.”

The Queen’s visit ended on Saturday with a send-off by the Governor-general Quentin Bryce and her husband Michael, at Perth International Airport.

Hundreds of well-wishers gathered behind a wire mesh fence to wave their final farewells and a cheer went up from the crowd as the royal couple climbed the plane’s steps, the Queen hanging on to her hat in the wind as she waved goodbye.

And here is the account of the last day of the royal visit from the Court Circular, as printed in The Times issue of Monday, October 31 2011 at 12:01AM.

Buckingham Palace
29th October, 2011

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh this morning attended the “Big Aussie Barbecue” at the Esplanade in Perth and were received by the Premier of Western Australia (the Hon. Colin Barnett MLA).

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh this afternoon departed for the United Kingdom.

The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia (Ms Quentin Bryce), Mr Stephen Smith MP (Minister for Defence representing the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia), the Governor of Western Australia (Mr Malcolm McCusker) and the Premier of Western Australia (the Hon Colin Barnett MLA) were present at Perth International Airport and bade farewell to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness on the conclusion of the visit.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh this evening arrived at Heathrow Airport, London, from Australia.

The following were in attendance: the Hon Mary Morrison, the Lady Susan Hussey, the Rt Hon Sir Christopher Geidt, Air Vice-Marshal Sir David Walker, Mr Doug King, Ms Samantha Cohen, Mrs Mark Anderson, Mr Michael Jephson, Surgeon Captain David Hett RN, and Brigadier Archie Miller-Bakewell.

 

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