Welcome to my Blog!
I hope to share here my irrepressible thoughts on news, music, books, arts and such like. In general these will be items, events and issues which I feel have no place on my website (which focusses on aviation history and my travel photography).

The item immediately below this would be the latest posting.

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself. - Charles Baudelaire
Esse est percipi (To be is to be perceived) ¬Bishop George Berkeley

Not even I understand everything I am ¬Aurelius Augustinus of Hippo

In 2013 I started a series of photo albums on Blurb.com, named '36Exp' (a subject adressed in 36 exposures, a reference to the exposures on most common rolls of 35 mm film: 12, 24 & 36.) back in the day.
The books can be ordered directly from the Blurb.com or Amazon.
www.blurb.com/user/ruudleeuw

CURRENT BLOG

LFI wrote: "There is only one word to describe his work and approach: Zimbelism. This is the title of the 2016 documentary produced by film makers Jean François Gratton and Matt Zimbel – the photographer's eldest son – looking back over Zimbel senior's decades-long career in photojournalism. He was a storyteller, using his camera to photograph celebrities, presidents, film divas, but also people he met by chance during his photographic forays on the streets of New York and later Montreal."

George S. Zimbel (b.15Jul1929 – d.09Jan2023) was an American-Canadian documentary photographer.
He worked professionally from the late 1940s, mainly as a freelancer. He was part of the Photo League and was one of its last surviving members.
Born in Massachusetts, he settled in Canada about 1971.
His works have been shown with increasing frequency since 2000, and examples of his work are part of several permanent collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
He was described as a humanist.
Zimbel published several books of his photographs, and in 2016 was the subject of a documentary retrospective film co-directed by his son Matt Zimbel and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada.

lfi-online.de/ceemes/ - /George-S-Zimbel-has-passed-away
GeorgeZimbel.com

NL: 'Dagboek van een Invasie' - Andrej Koerkov (2022)

Kurkov’s on-the-ground account is packed with surprising details about the human effects of the Russian assault. Not just the highlights we learn from the media on the telly or from newspapers in our respective countries, but also minor (however important) issues people in Ukraine encounter in daily disrupted routines. Plenty of sorrow but this books also has upbeat moments, a wry smile may even occur to read about the resolve and ingenuity of the Ukranian people!

The diaries begin 29Dec2021, two months before the war did, and include items that might not seem pertinent: power cuts, Pushkin, Covid, drink-driving, hipster bookshops, school meals and whether Ukrainian is a sexier language than Russian.
But underneath is a constant fear of imminent conflict.

Kurkov’s line on the war, as "ageing Putin’s last chance to fulfil his dream of recreating the USSR", is familiar. So is his riposte to the allegation that Ukraine is anti-Russian and antisemitic: if it were, why would a Russian-speaking Jew be elected as its president with 73% of the vote?

What the book offers that international reportage can’t is surprising detail: Ukrainian farmers sowing seed – rape, buckwheat and rye – despite the risk from Russian shelling and landmines; an 85-year-old woman taking her rooster with her when she’s evacuated and the rooster waking her exhausted fellow evacuees at 4am; thousands of people buying tickets to a zoo they can’t visit because they want the animals to be fed; passages on dentistry, petrol scams, dolphins and "little graves days", when people tend to their loved ones’ resting places.
War is an ugly tumour, with countless civilian and military deaths every day. But it also provides opportunities: "You can learn to bake paskas [sweet bread] in a damaged stove. You can get a tattoo for the first time in your life at the age of 80. You can start learning Hungarian or Polish".

Kurkov writes in a fluent style, easy to read, though the subject is heartbreaking and strengthens the resolve that Russia can't be allowed to win this war.

Andrey Yuryevich Kurkov (b.23Apr1961-, Leningrad,USSR) is a Ukrainian author and public intellectual who writes in Russian and Ukranian.
He is the author of 19 novels, including the bestselling 'Death and the Penguin', 9 books for children, and about 20 documentary, fiction and TV movie scripts.
His work is currently translated into 37 languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Swedish, Persian and Hebrew and published in 65 countries.
Kurkov, who has long been a respected commentator on Ukraine for the international media, notably in Europe and the United States, has written assorted articles for various publications worldwide.
His books are full of black humour, post-Soviet reality and elements of surrealism.

His first novel was published two weeks before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Having graduated in 1983 from the Kyiv Foreign Languages Institute, and as a trained Japanese translator Kurkov was assigned military service assisting the KGB.
However, he managed to get his papers changed to service with the military police. This offered him a greater degree of freedom during and after his service period. He was assigned a prison guard position in Odessa.
His books are full of black humour, post-Soviet reality and elements of surrealism.

www.theguardian.com/ - /diary-of-an-invasion-by-andrey-kurkov
en.wikipedia.org:_Andrey_Kurkov

Originally published by 'Aperture in the Masters of Photography'-series in 1988, reprinted by Könemann in 1997 with text by R.H. Craven (english, german and french). Contains 44 photographs and a brief chronology.
Excellent biography; we learn about his lack of fidelity to women who nevertheless sponsored his career to a large extend, his obsession with going his own way in his photography, his fascination with shape and form and the poverty during his life.

Edward Henry Weston (b.24Mar1886 – d.01Jan1958).
He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography."
Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still-lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies.

en.wikipedia.org:_Edward_Weston

In 1213, Sint Geertruidenberg (EN: "Saint Gertrude's Mountain") received city rights from Count William I of Holland.
The fortified city became a trade center, where counts and other nobility gathered for negotiations.
The Hook and Cod wars in 1420 and the Saint Elizabeth's flood in 1421 ended the prosperity of the city.

During the Eighty Years War the city was captured in a surprise attack by an English, French Huguenot and Fleming force in 1573 . In 1589 however the city was betrayed to Parma by its English garrison.
It was finally recaptured by an Anglo-Dutch force under the command of Maurice of Nassau in the summer of 1593.

Today, Geertruidenberg is part of the province of North Brabant, but it was once part of the county of Holland.
Geertruidenberg is the 2nd oldest city of Holland as it was the first to receive city rights. It is a common misconception that Geertruidenberg is the oldest city of the Netherlands, because the names Holland and the Netherlands are used interchangeably by some.

en.wikipedia.org:_Geertruidenberg

At its height Renaissance Florence was a centre of enormous wealth, power and influence.
A republican city-state funded by trade and banking, its often bloody political scene was dominated by rich mercantile families, the most famous of which were the Medici.
This enthralling book charts the family’s huge influence on the political, economic and cultural history of Florence.

Hibbert's writing is enormously dense and compact in terms of names, locations, positions of power, relations, battles, lifestyles, trade, art & artists, enemies & allies, war & peace, papal intrigues, et cetera.
It is quite a book to devour, to comprehend it fully, it may take at least a 2nd and 3rd rereading!

Beginning in the early 1430s with the rise of the dynasty under the near-legendary Cosimo de Medici, it moves through their golden era as patrons of some of the most remarkable artists and architects of the Renaissance, to the era of the Medici Popes and Grand Dukes, Florence’s slide into decay, decadence and bankruptcy. And finally, the end in 1737 of the Medici line.

Christopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (b.05Mar1924 - d.21Dec2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer.
He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.
I also enjoyed his book on Rome, Biography of a City.

From Wikipedia:
'Arthur Raymond Hibbert was born in Enderby, Leicestershire in 1924, the son of Canon H. V. Hibbert (died 1980) and his wife Maude.
He was the 2nd of 3 children, and christened Arthur Raymond.
He was educated at Radley College in Oxfordshire before he went up to Oriel College at the University of Oxford. He was awarded the degrees of BA and later MA.
He left Oriel College to join the Army, where a sergeant major referred to Hibbert as "Christopher Robin" (of Winnie the Pooh books) based upon his youthful looks.
The name "Christopher" subsequently stuck!
During World War II, Hibbert served as an infantry officer in the London Irish Rifles regiment in Italy, reaching the rank of captain. He was wounded twice and awarded the Military Cross in 1945.
From 1945 to 1959, he was a partner in a firm of land agents and auctioneers, and began his writing career in 1957.
Hibbert was awarded the Heinemann Award for Literature in 1962 for The Destruction of Lord Raglan.

www.goodreads.com/ - / --the-rise-and-fall-of-the-house-of-medici
en.wikipedia.org:_Christopher_Hibbert

Jacob Olie (b.1834 – d.1905) was a Dutch photographer from Amsterdam.
He was known for his scenes of everyday life there.

Olie was born in Amsterdam and was trained as a carpenter and draughtsman. He became a teacher at the local school for craftsmen known as the 'Ambachtsschool', converting it to be the first ever vocational school of the Netherlands for boys.
He took up photography as a hobby.
Today he is known for his unusually sharp depictions of various parts of Amsterdam that no longer exist. His son, by the same name, also became a photographer.

The windcornmill 'De Hoop' in Giesbeek (Glederland) is a round stone scaffolding mill.
The mill was built in 1888 as a belt mill. A belt mill, or mountain (hill) mill, is a windmill that stands on a natural or artificially raised hill, the mill belt, which takes over the function of the scaffolding at a scaffolding mill.
In 1927, the roof and the blade cross of the mill were removed and a major restoration was necessary. During WW2, 'De Hoop' was severely damaged.
It was not until 1956 that the mill was restored, using parts from the Mill 'De Dankbaarheid' in Kreijel.

In 1964, the entire interior was broken out and the belt was excavated. In 1979, the municipality of Angerlo bought the mill to restore it in 1981.
The former belt mill definitively became a scaffolding mill. Part of the scaffolding is formed by the roof
of the supermarket built next to the mill.
It's open for visit on saturdays 9:00 - 13:00.

Historic windmilld Flickr.com
NL.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Hoop_(Giesbeek) (NL)

Ten photographers from the 'Deventer Fotokring' documented the river De IJssel, each in their own way.
The exhibition I visited was not in Deventer, but in Apeldoorn, the CODA Dok Zuid to be exact.
In various ways the landscape was photographed, some stayed stationary and on various time & date
shot at different angles, there was an interesting theme translated in close ups, I also very much liked the graffiti and the time exposures turning the river and sky in a blur.
It was very inspiring to see so many different views displayed, all taken along the river IJssel.

www.deventerfotokring.nl

CODA Dok Zuid also has a library.

Luigia 'Gina' Lollobrigida (b.04July1927 – d.16Jan2023) was an Italian actress, photojournalist, and politician.
She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which she was an international sex symbol. At the time of her death, she was among the last high-profile international actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
As her film career slowed, Lollobrigida established a second career as a photojournalist.
In the 1970s she achieved a scoop by gaining access to Fidel Castro for an exclusive interview.

By the end of the 1970s, Lollobrigida had embarked on what she developed into a successful 2nd career as a photographic journalist.
She photographed, a.o., Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, David Cassidy, Audrey Hepburn, Ella Fitzgerald and the Germany national football team.
Between 1972 - 1994 she published 6 collections of her photographs, including the 1973 title Italia Mia.

en.wikipedia.org:_Gina_Lollobrigida

Val McDermid’s take on the year 1979 begins with the birth of a baby on a snowbound train between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It’s an exclusive for young reporter Allie Burns, who happens to be on board. She is the protagonist of '1979'.

Burns is determined to make a serious journo career and to be taken seriously at 'the Clarion'. She's clever and with plenty of moxy, she has read Tom Wolfe and Joan Didion, and she soon finds herself working with fellow reporter Danny Sullivan on a tax fraud scandal involving some of Scotland’s seediest businessmen.
Danny s an investigative reporter but needs Allie's writing skills to shape the story.
Her next big scoop takes her to the SNP, portrayed as an earnest fringe pressure group arguing about what it really wants in the approach to the 1979 referendum. Burns, however, unearths a trio of hotheads who have ambitions to spice up the independence debate with a spot of violence.
Danny infiltrates the group by offering sponsorship for guns and semtex.

McDermid’s 35th book is the first in a series of 5 tracking Burns through 5 decades of journalism.
In the first instalment, she draws on her own experience as a young reporter in Glasgow in the late 1970s, a world of of clattering typewriters and cigarette smoke, not to mention rampant sexism, racism and homophobia.

Not a bad book as crime writing goes, the 2nd crime fiction I've read by Val McDermid, but she is very descriptive of scenes, moods, thoughts, locations and relations. There is not much edginess in the narrative (though it has good plots and turns), which I so much like in Ian Rankin's books and authors from Iceland and Scandinavia.

McDermid comes from a working-class family in Fife. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford,where she was the first student to be admitted from a Scottish state school.
After graduation she became a journalist and began her literary career as a dramatist.
Her first success as a novelist, Report for Murder: The First Lindsay Gordon Mystery occurred in 1987. McDermid was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 2000, and won the CWA Diamond Dagger for her lifetime contribution to crime writing in the English language in 2010.
She is co-founder of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, part of the Harrogate International Festivals.
In 2017, McDermid was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

www.scotsman.com/ - 1979_by_ValMcDermid
en.wikipedia.org:_Val_McDermid

Celebrating Magnum's photographic excellence in this captivating tome of a book, readers will travel around the globe with the world's finest photographers through 365 images.
Featuring new and iconic images, this follow-up to Prestel's highly successful A Year in Photography: Magnum Archive includes some of the most striking photography ever collected in one volume.

As readers flip the pages they will find themselves traveling from west to east across the globe. Each country is represented in 3 or 4 images captured by a single photographer. While renowned figures such as Robert Capa, Bruce Davidson, and Martin Parr are included, readers will also find younger photographers such as Olivia Arthur, Alessandra Sanguinetti, and Mikhael Subotzky, all of whom present dazzling new views of our changing world.
It was nice to see work by Ara Güler included here!

Shining a light on the human condition in every corner of the globe, this compilation exemplifies Magnum founder Henry Cartier-Bresson's vision of -a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.
It was hard, impossible in fact, to make a selection and I wanted to depict images from most continents.

Absolutely recommended to acquire this fine photobook for your collection or to become inspired!

www.goodreads.com/book/ - / -Magnum_Atlas
en.artbooksonline.eu

The title of Dorrestijn's new book already reveals that the author is omnipresent in this new work. But he also speaks on behalf of all those contemporaries who do not feel at home in this century, who cannot and do not want to keep up with developments..
Those who no longer receive a letter but e-mails. Not getting the doctor on the line but a voiced menu with options. Those who see no salvation in artificial grass, although they love poems and paintings.

Those who have nothing to do with toxic dangers on land and in the sea, referring to 'windmills'. In the past, a windmill was a beautiful and purely natural thing..
In this book Dorrestijn also does not avoid the real Big Modern problems. For example, those semi and certified meteorologists who call themselves weathermen or women still announce beautiful weather
(35 ° Celsius) adding "wonderful terrace weather".

'Nobody holds his heart as much as I do' (a Dutch expression, to be in fear) is full of brand new stories, poems, thoughts and songs, such as 'The Language of Annoyance', 'Babysitting with optimism', 'Animal Humor-Silence Bomb', various Cat Bubbles, , Vicious Circles and Cheerful Roundels.

Hans Dorrestijn (b. 16Jun1940- ) is a Dutch comedian and writer. His look on life, objects, customs, traditions, nature, environment, people young & old, et cetera is often wry bordering to 'noir' plus his verses styled not the way one may be used to.

en.wikipedia.org:_Hans_Dorrestijn

During this Dutch Ice Sculpture Festival one makes a magical journey along dozens of life-size snow and ice sculptures.
The theme this year (W2022/2023): "WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD".
A joyful event very welcome in this day and age.

Be amazed by the beautiful things in life; LOVE, ART, ARCHITECTURE, FLORA & FAUNA and BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE.
Fantastic!

Much more on www.flickr.com/photos

From Aleppo to Turin
(Prometheus, 2023)

In "Dreamland Italy"( subtitled 'From Aleppo to Turin') Dutch author and Rome resident, travels through Italy and sees how the situation of immigrants is hardening, but also how resistance is rising from the churches, among others.
Steenbeek returns to Lampedusa, where she stayed in 2016 and 2017, aiding the migrants. Lampedusa had changed since her earlier visits, onlookers are no longer welcome and arrivals of migrants are screened from the public. She visits a.o. Bolzano and Triëst.
She stays in the heart of Venice in a B&B of the Waldensians, the once heavily persecuted Protestant minority, who donate their proceeds entirely to the refugees.
She (re)visits people who came to Italy through a humanitarian corridor, such as the women from Aleppo with whom she spent the night in a Lebanese refugee camp, and who are now building a life in Turin.
In the deep south of Calabria, she sees how migrants are exploited as slaves and are targets of aggression. But also how people are committed to changing these abuses.

Increasingly, it seems, criminal actions against refugees are becoming legal and acts of solidarity criminal. Has Europe sold its soul to the devil?
Rosita Steenbeek documents her meetings with empathy but what she paints is a bleak picture, with little improvement on the horizon.

Rosita Steenbeek (b.25May1957- ) is a Dutch writer and occasional actress. After spending her childhood in Amersfoort, she now lives in the Italian capital Rome.

www.rositasteenbeek.com
www.hebban.nl/ - /droomland-italie_rosita-steenbeek