SITUATION NORMAL*

* No SNAFU.

As mentioned on another of my blogs, I had an MRI scan yesterday and here's an abridged version of the report that they sent to me:

FINDINGS

As per the previous scan, there are multiple foci of T2 hyperintensity

within the white matter of both cerebral hemispheres, in keeping with

moderate chronic small vessel ischaemic change...

No focus of restricted diffusion is seen to suggest a recent infarct.

No focus of susceptibility artefact is seen to suggest intracerebral

haemorrhage.

No mass lesion is seen within either cerebral or cerebellar hemisphere or

the brainstem.

There are normal appearances of the pituitary, no pituitary mass or

suprasellar mass is identified, there are normal appearances of the optic

chiasm.

Normal appearances of the craniocervical junction.

The ventricular system is symmetrical and of normal size with no evidence of

hydrocephalus or raised intracranial pressure.

Normal appearances of both orbits...

Normal vascular opacification.

No abnormal enhancement is identified.

 

CONCLUSION

Stable appearances compared to the previous MRI scan from 27 October 2018.

Moderate chronic small vessel ischaemic changes with a mature lacunar

infarct within the left cerebellar hemisphere.

No more recent infarct is identified.

No mass lesion is seen, no chiasmal lesion is identified.

Sorry about all that technical stuff - you must be tired of that after reading the music and religion blog posts from other sites.

That's a relief though and the scheduled cataract operation (lens replacement) can go ahead in a few weeks.

Remember - I'll be keeping an eye on you.

But might not need spectacles to do so after the operation.

 

NEW POST - THE MUSIC CURMUDGEON

OH WELL 

NEW POST - THE RELIGIOUS CURMUDGEON

 

OUR LADY OF KAPITI

 

BONUS POST FROM THE ART HISTORIAN CURMUDGEON*

* As yet there isn't an art historian curmudgeon but, pending readers' responses one can be created.

🎁*******************🎁

THE ART HISTORIAN CURMUDGEON

You may have noticed that Richard, in a recent post used an image from Ludovico Mazzolino's 'God The Father' painting (painted between 1510 and 1520).

Had Richard, like me, studied 'Renaissance Art Stage Two' at Victoria University he would know that artists, particularly artists from The Renaissance used images of themselves or their patrons when painting religious artwork.

Ludovico Mazzolino (1480 – c. 1528) was also known as Mazzolini da Ferrara, Lodovico Ferraresa, and Il Ferrarese . He was an Italian Renaissance painter who lived and worked in Ferrara and Bologna the source (sauce) of many great creations - a little cultural joke there.

 Much of Mazzolino's work was commissioned by the duke Ercole I d'Esme from Ferrara who was a bit older than Mazzolino. The duke, in all of the paintings that Mazzolino and others did of him is always portrayed as wearing a hat which might be a clue to his baldness and being a bald old coot.

Mazzolino died relatively young, even for the times, but may have been a bald young coot though. The exact date, or even year, of his death is unknown, but he died during a plague which devastated the area he lived in.

I hope that you liked this post and are appreciative of my efforts to bring a little bit of historical accuracy into your reading. When it comes to Richard (of RBB)'s blog posts, like with anything said or written by Donald Trump it's a case of caveat emptor.

🎁*******************🎁

'MY EYES ARE DIM I CANNOT SEE ..."

I mentioned last month that I have a problem with my eyesight, finding it difficult to clearly see things that I'm reading (and typing in case any pedamtic old X - skoo cgoggletichers ary ruding this).

I made an appointment with an eye specialist last month and that appointment is tomorrow.

The Old Girl has  to drive me in and to home because the procedure means that the drops they put in my eyes for the examination rule out driving for a while afterwards. I guess that golf will be out as well (boom boom - an old stand-up Dean Martin-type joke there).

With the long waiting list for GP appointments, dental appointments and basically any professional or specialist procedures nowadays (what's that about? Maybe an investigative post is required?) I made this appointment while looking at my diary for a clear week. Of course, Murphy's Law steps in and makes sure that the day of my appointment will be the funeral day of a beloved uncle who died during the week and whose funeral is tomorrow in Paraparaumu. I can't go as I've waited so long for this specialist appointment and need to get things sorted out.

Eyesight is an extremely valuable sense that many people take for granted. One of my tennis playing mates, Bruce, recently underwent major eye surgery. He had been having trouble with his eye and his vision was getting w ..... yes, you read that correctly, I said "his eye". Bruce, who is the best tennis player at the club only has one working eye. He was blinded in the other as a child about 70 years ago. Recently his good eye has been giving him gyp and so, after an eye specialist appointment he was scheduled for surgery to correct a range of problems. It was touch and go but after several surgeries his vision has improved and he says that he hasn't seen as clearly for decades.

In previous posts I've hinted suggested regaled you with anecdotes of my eyesight and the need to wear glasses from about 14 years on. Hey! Did I tell you this story about when a flatmate of mine asked me, after I told her, that when I take my glasses off I can hardly see anything and she then asked me how I make love, I told her that I did it in Braille much to her amusement (and willingness to put it to the test)?

Moving on ...  I'm not sure what the eye specialist will discover tomorrow. I can accept cataracts or macular degeneration which are both fairly serious. If it's cataracts a laser op. will fix it, macular degeneration - less likely to be fixed. It may well be that a new spectacle prescription for my astigmatism is needed.

I can live with that - I gave up vanity years ago.

We're all getting old and medical procedures beckon.  A good friend is undergoing chemotherapy at present but it looks like, invasive as it may be, the results are looking good. A beloved and close family member recently underwent chemotherapy and thankfully (not thanks to any god) made it through.

Stay safe friends and readers and if you have any sort of health problem for Robert's god's sake - get it checked out early.

INTERVIEW # 31

This weekend, somewhere in the Hutt Valley, two old fiddlers stringed instrument players will get together for a 'play-off' - one on double bass and the other on cello. Gosh! It's a pity that I'm busy up north and will miss this.

I'm not sure what they will play and like to think it's 'Camptown Races' or something similar but knowing them it's likely to be classical music. Might I recommend 'Duet for Cello and Bass' by Gioachino Rossini?

Maybe we should get old Gioachino's opinion on this. We haven't conducted an interview for a while so this is opportune.

INTERVIEW # 31 GIOACHINO ROSSINI

TC: Welcome Gioachino to the latest interview where we interview people who often don't get the chance to be heard ...

GR: Che diavolo vuoi dire? Gioachino Rossini è ascoltato quotidianamente da milioni di persone in tutto il mondo.

TC: Hey! Hey! Don't get your knickers in a twist GR and speak in English please. I'm not talking about your music. I like opera and you are one of my favourites. It's Richard who makes scathing remarks ...

GR: ... Basta! Who is this Richard person who makes scathing remarks about me?

TC: Richard? Oh he's just some old guy who lives in Wainuiomata he ... ha ha, get this GR, he calls it Nuova Lazio!

GR: Nuova Lazio? Does he not know that in Italian that means ...

TC: ... Yes, yes he knows that. He's been speaking and writing in Italian for years for some reason. He even once had an Italian friend.

GR: Testa di cazzo! Che due palle!

TC: Yes, his name is Richard and he say's 'piano' a lot.

GR: I'm not surprised that he doesn't have any Italian friends then.

TC: He plays double bass too.

GR: Ah!

TC: Ah?

GR: Si, ah! I wrote some music about the double bass - as accompaniment to a cello would you believe?

TC: Yes I know GR and here's the kicker - Richard's brother Robert plays cello.

GR: Brother Robert? Is he one of those religious guys who ...

TC: ... who fiddle with little boys? No ... well, yes and no. He doesn't fiddle with little boys but he is religious he ... oh! I see why you got confused. Robert is Richard's brother. He's not Brother Robert ha ha. Actually, that image of you above looks like a cross between Richard and Robert - a doppelganger if you will.

GR: I won't. Ha ha Il mio errore. So, cello and double bass eh. I bet that they have arguments.

TC: Like you wouldn't believe GR. Like you wouldn't believe. Anyway, enough about those old duffers, we're here to talk about you. You wrote 39 operas, all before the age of 37. 

GR: Yes, that's right but then I just retired you know. I lived on for another 40 years afterwards though.

TC: Ha ha - like me. I retired early as I felt that I did my best work when I was young. What did you get up to when you retired GR?

GR: Oh, you know, a bit of this and that. Although most people know me for my operas I also composed orchestral pieces, such as Sonata No. 6 in D Major for String Orchestra.

TC: Really?

GR: Yes, really. We talked before about that 'Duet for Cello and Bass'. Keep up TC.

TC: Yeah, sorry about that. I must have nodded off. GR, I read somewhere that, throughout your career, food and music proved to be one of your passions. 

“Eating, loving, singing and digesting are, in truth, the four acts of the comic opera known as life,” you once said, “and they pass like bubbles of a bottle of champagne. Whoever lets them break without having enjoyed them is a complete fool.”

GR: (Burrrp) Scusa! Yes, I said that. It inspired Luciano Pavarotti who took it too far, got fat and died at a young age unfortunately.

TC: (Looking discreetly at Rossini) Mmm - maybe you took your passion to greater heights as well GR.

GR: Rude!

TC:   Yeah, mi scusi. I also read that you took pride in being able to write about anything. You once said:

 ”Give me a laundry list, and I’ll set it to music.”

GR: Actually I said that a lot of times. I was known for my quips back in the day and before the days of social media I had to repeat it a lot (buurp) Scusi!

TC: Old Richard says and does similar things. He writes music about his washing machine and his dryer you know, and once his oven door blew off but I don't know if that had anything to do with music.

GR: Well even Wagner had good moments, (but awful quarters of an hour).

TC:  Ha ha - that's a good one. You also said:

”How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.” 

GR: Yeah I know but only because some fat bastard tenor drank my best wine - the one without a label.

TC: Like Richard.

GR: Strauss?

TC: No, Prowse.

GR: Ah yes. I liked those Star War films.

TC: ????

TC: Well, moving on GR, you're known as a bit of a rocketman. The Rossini rocket where you made frequent use of the crescendo, in which music gradually builds in volume and speeds to a climax. They called you “Signor Crescendo” during your career, and the technique itself became known as a “Rossini crescendo,” or better yet, “Rossini rocket.” 

GR: That's true TC but not everyone liked it though. Some bastard writing in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians wrote:

 “The crescendo degenerated into a mere mannerism with Rossini, in whose works it is used with wearisome iteration,” 

Cazzo!

TC: Yea, cazzo! Talking of rocketman, and I was, did you know that Elton John wrote a song titled 'Rocketman'?

GR: Of course TC. I whispered in Reginald's ear many years ago. He wasn't the only pop singer I influenced you know? I see myself as a pop culture muse. I inspired “The Lone Ranger” theme, remember that? My favourite though is the Chuck Jones cartoon “Rabbit of Seville” (1950) where Bugs Bunny doubles as Figaro to torment Elmer Fudd. Classic:

TC: Yes, classic. Well GR, we're out of time now. The Old Girl is hinting that it's time to open the Champagne - Veuve Cliquot vintage rose tonight and there's only enough for two. Besides, it has a label on it so you won't like it. Bye!

THE WAY I WANT TO GO

 WRITE YOUR OWN DEATH NOTICE

 ... and your own eulogy.

Hey! I'll even go so far as to select my own music to be played at my funeral service burial cremation.

I can rely on The Old Girl who is strong, clever and who has experience in this having conducted her father's, her mother's and her son's funerals to organise this. She will also speak a eulogy before or after reading mine. This is what a shared life is truly about.

FACING FACTS

 Just to hand are some new face comparison images of Richard of RBB to various other personalities. I know that readers are keen to see these.

YOU COULDN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP*

 * Well, you couldn't - I can and frequently do but in this case I got this from the internet 

Christina the Astonishing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Saint Christina the Astonishing

Christina the Astonishing appearing in the 1630 Fasti Mariani calendar of saints - feast day July 24th front of card.
Born 1150
Brustem, County of Loon (appropriately)
Died 24 July 1224
Sint-Truiden, County of Loon
Venerated in Catholic Church Feast July 24
Patronage people with mental disorders, mental health workers (who would have thought?)

Christina the Astonishing (c.1150 – 24 July 1224), also known as Christina Mirabilis, was a Christian holy woman born in Brustem (near Sint-Truiden), Belgium. Christina is primarily known for her legendary resurrection during her funeral mass, and numerous other miracles attributed to her during her life. 

She was considered a saint in her own time, and for centuries following her death, as noted by her appearance in the Fasti Mariani Calendar of Saints of 1630, and Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints.  Though never formally canonised, she is commemorated in the current edition of the Roman Martyrology on 24 July, the day of her death.

Life

Christina was born to a religious family, the youngest of three daughters. After being orphaned at the age of fifteen, she worked taking the herds to pasture. She suffered a massive seizure when she was in her early twenties. Her condition was so severe that witnesses assumed she had died. A funeral was held, but during the service, "she arose full of vigour, stupefying with amazement the whole city of Sint-Truiden, which had witnessed this wonder. She levitated up to the rafters, later explaining that she could not bear the smell of the sinful people there."

Saint Christina the Astonishing (Mirabilis) front of prayer card from 1892 confirming by the Bishop Victor-Josephus that her relics were at the time cared for by the Redemptorists and that her Feast day was July 24th.

She related that she had witnessed Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. She said that as soon as her soul was separated from her body, angels conducted it to a very gloomy place, entirely filled with souls enduring such torments that it was impossible to describe them. She claimed that she had been offered a choice of either remaining in heaven or returning to earth to perform penance in order to deliver souls from the flames of Purgatory. Christina agreed to return to life and in that instant stood up. She told those around her that she had returned to life for the sole purpose of bringing relief to the departed and conversion to sinners.

Christina renounced all of life's comforts, reduced herself to extreme destitution, dressed in rags, lived without home or hearth, and not content with these privations eagerly sought out all that could cause her suffering. At first, she fled human contact and, suspected of being possessed, was jailed. Upon her release, she took up the practice of extreme penance.

Thomas of Cantimpre, then a canon regular who was a professor of theology, wrote a report eight years after her death, based on the accounts of those who knew her.

Saint Christina the Astonishing (Mirabilis) church photo with a caption reading "In pestilence, famine, and war, deliver us Lord - Saint Christina for your community intercede".

Thus, argues Bellarmine, "God willed to silence those libertines who make open profession of believing in nothing, and who have the audacity to ask in scorn, Who has returned from the other world? Who has ever seen the torments of Hell or Purgatory? Behold two witnesses. They assure us that they have seen them and that they are dreadful. What follows, then, if not that the incredulous is inexcusable, and that those who believe and nevertheless neglect to do penance are still more to be condemned?"

The reference was to Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, who met her and recounted that she would throw herself into burning furnaces and there suffer great tortures for extended times, uttering frightful cries, yet coming forth with no sign of burns upon her. In winter she would plunge into the frozen Meuse River for hours and even days and weeks at a time, all the while praying to God and imploring his mercy. She sometimes allowed herself to be carried by the currents downriver to a mill where the wheel "whirled her round in a manner frightful to behold", yet she never suffered any dislocations or broken bones. She was chased by dogs which bit her.

After being jailed a second time, upon her release she moderated her approach somewhat. Christina died at the Dominican Convent of Saint Catherine in Sint-Truiden, of natural causes, aged 74. The prioress there later testified that, despite her behaviour, Christina would humbly and fully obey any command given her by the prioress.

In his commentaries to a new edition of the Latin text, the French historian Sylvain Piron suggests that she was only about 12 at the time of her apparent death. Her birth should rather be placed around 1170 than 1150.

Legacy and veneration

Christina the Astonishing has been recognised as a saint since the 12th century. She was placed in the calendar of the saints by at least two bishops of the Catholic Church in two different centuries (17th & 19th) that also recognised her life in a religious order and preservation of her relics. The Catholic Church allows and recognises veneration of saints upheld by the laity; canonisation is understood as a re-affirming of the more notable examples of Christian life as mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Saint Christina the Astonishing, having early church recognition, is due her title of Saint as stated by the church's Magisterium and sacred tradition.

Veneration of Christina the Astonishing has never been formally approved by the Catholic Church, but there remains a strong devotion to her in her native region of Limburg. Prayers are traditionally said to Christina to seek her intercession for millers, for those suffering from mental illness, and for mental health workers.

***********

Yep. That all seems fair. What's not to believe there?

Excuse me, I'm just off to look for fairies at the bottom of the garden.

"SAINTS ALIVE!"

 Robert has a new saint friend - Bridget of Sweden.

He has mentioned a few of his favourites in previous posts - Catherine of Siena, Claire of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Christina The Astonishing (the mind boggles) and Rose of Lima just to name a few.

This reminds me of my university days when I had about thirty (imaginary) girlfriends much to Richard's jealousy. Whenever I saw a nice looking fellow student I'd add her to the list of my girlfriends in my head.

What next for Robert I wonder - Ursula of Ukraine,  Grizelda of Greece or Kahlia of Kathmandhu?