13 Sculptures Children Should Know

My love affair with this series continues. As does my art education. Here I knew 33% of the cover art, hardly an achievement given that Michelangelo's David is possibly the most famous sculpture in the world.

Winged Victory of Samothrace
Nicholas of Verdun, Shrine of the Three Kings
Dancing Ganesha
Great Buddha of Kamakura
Michelangelo, David
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fountain of the Four Rivers
Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais
Mbala Mask
Constantin Brancusi, Endless Column
Claes Oldenburg, Giant Toothpaste Tube
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty
Niki de Saint Phalle, Stravinski Fountain
Anish Kapoor, Cloud Gate

I shall concentrate on the three Parisian sculptures, just because I can. I have been lucky enough to see the Winged Victory of Samothrace twice now on visits to her home in the Louvre.

But I didn't know that she was a depiction of the Goddess of Victory, Nike (or indeed why that is the name of a shoe company). She is beautiful and certainly awe inspiring as she is given pride of place at the top of a flight of stairs in the Louvre.

I wasn't familiar with Rodin's Burghers of Calais, despite visiting the Rodin Museum last year. We didn't get to go inside the house, it may be in there, or perhaps we missed it in the grounds. An excellent excuse to plan a return visit anyway. Ah, no, it's outside.

Picture Credit and lengthy info

The Burghers of Calais is fascinating for a number of reasons. It does depict the surrender of Calais in 1347 to the English during the Hundred Year War. Which is an unusual moment for the city of Calais to want to memorialise in such a way. The original is in Calais, 12 copies have been made (most of which were after Rodin's death) which are on display around the world.

The third Parisian sculpture is again one I haven't seen, but only because of my dislike of the architecture of the Centre Georges Pompidou. I've glimpsed it down the rue, but never been interested enough to go a few blocks out of my way. Next time in Paris, I shall have to make the detour. Because lurking nearby is the Stravinsky Fountain created by husband and wife team, Niki de Saint Phalle (the only likely female sculptor I can see in this book) and Jean Tinguely.

Picture Credit

I'm not sure if I like it, but now I will have to see it for myself.

The cover art is of course Michelangelo's David, Claes Oldenburg, Giant Toothpaste Tube and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty.

See my previous posts
13 Modern Artists Children Should Know
13 Artists Children Should Know
13 Buildings Children Should Know

Foods That Shouldn't be Deep Fried #1- Cheesecake

A few months ago I was lucky enough to be able to attend my first ever Royal Easter Show in Sydney. It was a day full of fun and surprises in many ways. I didn't notice the sign as we walked past. Luckily my sister has eagle eyes for such things. I was drawn like a moth to a flame. 

I had to look

And then I knew I had to do it. I had to buy one. I expected it to be awful (let's face it most food at the show is). I was fully prepared to throw away both the deep fried cheesecake and my $8. And for reasons I still don't understand I asked for the chocolate instead of the strawberry.

And it does look like a heart attack on a (plastic) plate. But you know what it wasn't too bad!  I'm no world authority on inappropriately deep fried delicacies, but I'm certainly thinking of adding this as a subspecialty interest. I've only ever had a deep fried Moro bar in New Zealand (which was awful). This deep fried cheesecake was actually much better than I was expecting. Edible even.

I think it was a bit of frozen Sara Lee cheesecake in another life before being dunked in quite a sweet batter for its deep frying adventure.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

A Misty Morning

Winter isn't great but it does bring lovely, moody misty mornings. Not that I think mornings are that great either come to think of it. 

The creek out the back of our place does look nice on these mornings though.

Playing Beatie Bow

Ruth Park is perhaps a somewhat neglected Australian author (well near Australian at least). And neglected by me at least til now. Sadly Ruth died last year at the grand old age of 93. I'd heard of a fair few of her books over time- The Muddle-Headed Wombat, Harp in the South, Playing Beatie Bow being some of her most famous. But had never read any til now. Her Miles Franklin winner Swords and Crowns and Rings appears to have drifted into the out of print wasteland.

Playing Beatie Bow is the story of Lynette, a 14 year old girl who prefers to be known as Abby since her father left. Abby lives with her mother Kathy in the historic Rocks area of Sydney- a beautiful part of the world, nestled as it is between the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, site of some of the earliest European settlement in Australia. Kathy runs a second hand shop in a lane in Paddington.

Abby and Kathy live in a fictional high rise in the Rocks, two younger children live next door. The nasty and horrible Victor and the downtrodden preschooler Natalie. Abby takes Natalie to the local park where the children like playing a game called Beatie Bow. Beatie Bow is a famous ghost who rises from the dead, and chases children. There are similar games the world over I suspect. Natalie notices a funny "little furry girl" at the park. Abby follows her, and things change forever.

I really enjoyed the historical aspects of this book, which is partly set in the Sydney of 1873. I learnt so much about one of my favourite cities in the world. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Ragged School Movement.

Picture Credit

And I loved being reminded of the hydrofoils that used to cruise Sydney Harbour! They were always a highlight of childhood visits to Sydney. And I'd completely forgotten about them.

Picture credit

Ruth Park certainly wasn't afraid of the dark side, and there is one particular part that was quite frightening and almost sordid. It is perhaps all tied up a bit too neatly at the end but I think we can forgive Ruth Park that. Jane Austen always wraps things up in the last few pages too.

Mr Popper's Penguins x2

It's not often that I prefer the movie version, and the Jim Carrey movie version at that, to the book. I am usually rather sceptical of any Jim Carrey offering. I was however pleasantly surprised by the recent movie version of Mr Popper's Penguins. I knew nothing of the story, indeed I've only heard of the book in the last few years. It wasn't all that well known in Australia prior to this years movie. I took my son one afternoon during the school holidays, the cinema was rather packed with children who all laughed away at the movie. I got the occasional laugh too. Farting, honking penguins slip sliding around will always be funny.

It turns out that the move version bears scant relation to the book. The characters do generally have the same names. There is indeed a Mr Popper who receives penguins in the mail. The movie Mr Popper lives in New York, where he is separated from Mrs Popper, and has some sort of mercenary real estate job. He lives in a flash apartment and has buckets of money.

The Mr Popper of the book is rather poorer, working hard to support his family as a painter and decorator in Stillwater. He too receives a penguin in the mail, although from a different source than the movie version.

Perhaps because I didn't grow up with this book, it seems a bit dated? I read this book aloud to my 10 year old son for bedtime reading after we had seen the movie. We finished it, but he was never that enthused, and I must say neither was I. As a read aloud book it was rather tricky- too many times Papa and Popper where in the same sentence!

Wondrous Words Wednesday 17/8/11

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

I've recently finished reading Mr Popper's Penguins. As with any classic you always learn a few things. 


1. Calcimine (noun)


He was spattered here and there with paint and calcimine, and there were bits of wallpaper clinging to his hair and whiskers, for he was rather an untidy man.


A white or tinted liquid containing zinc oxide, water, glue, and coloring matter, used as a wash for walls and ceilings. The free dictionary.

Picture credit

2. Rotogravure (noun)


Then the Associated Press picked up the story, and a week later the photograph, in rotogravure, could be seen in the Sunday edition of the most important newspapers in all the large cities in the country. 




An intaglio printing process in which letters and pictures are transferred from an etched copper cylinder to a web of paper, plastic, or similar material in a rotary press. The Free Dictionary


Rotogravure is then a printing process, widely used in the early part of the 20th century, when printing photos was difficult and the Sunday newspapers printed all the photographs in one section. 


3. Pullmans (noun)


It had been decided that Mr Popper should ride in the baggage car with the penguins to keep them from getting nervous, while Mrs Popper and the children should ride in one of the Pullmans. 


The Poppers here are traveling by train and it is clear that the meaning here is a railway carriage, and I presumed it was a manufacturer, but wanted to check it out as it wasn't a term familiar to me. Of course it's all there on wiki, George Pullman started making railway carriages with sleeping berths after spending the night sleeping in his seat going from Buffalo to Westfield, New York. Ha. I sat up from Baltimore to LA in the 80s because I couldn't afford to buy a sleeper. Buffalo to Westfield seems more a commute now.

A Walk by the Lake 2

I love a walk by the lake, it's not something I get to do all that often sadly, I took a nice walk by the lake earlier in the year, recently I got the chance again.

Crested pigeon

A seagull enjoying what I still think of as my Grandad's fishing spot, even though Grandad has been dead for more than 15 years

Pair of Eastern Rosellas

White faced heron

Lichen on rocks always looks so cool

And on trees

Silver Gull

Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books.