Sufi Ramadan traditions
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How do Sufi practices differ in Ramadan?
Kunqu Opera in Venice
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Luo Chenxue from the Kunqu Opera of Jiangsu performs at Teatro Goldoni on July 29, 2011 in Venice, Italy. Kunqu Opera, now under the Unesco patronage, originated in the Jiangsu province, dating back to the early Ming dinasty. With a history of more than six hundred years, Kunqu Opera is a traditional type of Chinese drama and one of the most ancient opera forms in China and in the world.
Image Gallery is here
Redentore Festival in Venice
/Redentore is the celebration most loved by Venetians, to remind the end of the plague in 1577 higlights of the celebration are the poonton bridge across the Giudecca Canal, people gatherings on boats in the St Mark's basin and spectacular fireworks display
Redentore is a popular festival that combines the sacred and profane, as Venice celebrations often do. Redentore is the celebration most loved by Venetians, to remind the end of the plague in 1577, one of the most disastrous plagues in Venice history, still commemorated today with "the famous night of fireworks", on the 3rd Saturday of July. On the 3rd weekend in July, religious and political authorities, inhabitants and guests walk on this passageway to reach by foot, from the historical centre of Venice, the temple dedicated to Christ the Redeemer in the island of Giudecca
For the "famous night of fireworks", between the 3rd Saturday of July and the Sunday after, thousands of Venetians and visitors come to celebrate, in the S. Mark´s basin swarming with boats crowded with people who bring typical culinary delights. Beginning on that Saturday morning, people engages with the organisation and preparation for the Redentore Festival. Foods are cooked for up to 20/30 people; candle-baloons, leafy branches and other trinket are hanged on the boats, terraces and rooftop loggias. Soon as they are ready, those on the boats start looking for the best places in St. Mark´s Basin. After supper with relatives and friends under the showy ornamentation, everybody waits for the great firework show (the "foghi") to begin, usually around 23:00.
Flying above Venice
/The Seawings tours are specifically designed to complement your cruise experience, Seawings encourage you to relax as your guide whisks you away to the historic Island of San Clemente; explore the grounds of the luxurious San Clemente Palace Hotel & Resort and hop on board for memories that will last forever. Providing unparalleled and rarely seen aerial views of the Venetian Lagoon and the islands of San Servolo, San Giorgio Maggiore, Giudecca, Torcello and Lido, Seawings promises you all the excitement in a lot less time.
No other tour provides such a complete picture of the enitire empire of Venezia. Seawings guided sightseeing tour of Venice is truly a unique way to see Venice as never before.
Galata Mevlevi Ensemble...under the sign of Rumi!
/The Galata Mevlevi Music and Sema Ensemble, under the direction of Al Sheik Nail Kesova, brings to audiences around the world the beauty and spirituality of the Sema, the Mevlevi whirling ritual, and the tradition of Mevlevi music. The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey were proclaimed as a Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. The "Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" Programme was launched by UNESCO in 1997 to raise public awareness about the value of the intangible elements of heritage and the need to safeguard them .For more than 700 years, the Mevlevi brotherhood defined the spiritual life of the Ottoman Empire. Sufism, and especially the Mevlevis, gave birth to well known poets, musicians, theologians and politicians. Travelers to the Orient noticed the Mevlevis mainly because of their “Sema“, the ritual whirling dance. The brotherhood of the Whirling Dervishes became familiar worldwide as the symbol of oriental mysticism.
The Galata Mevlevi Music and Sema Ensemble is very much part of the so called avant-garde tradition of the brotherhood. Sheik Nail Kesova has composed a number of liturgical pieces for the group. In collaboration with Asian and western musicians and orchestras, they have created new interpretations of traditional oriental and mystic compositions. Perhaps one of the most important activities of the group has been to continue the tradition of the Mevlevi Order to educate young, talented musicians in the sophisticated art of classical mystic music, in addition to bringing the haunting beauty of the whirling ritual, the Sema, to people throughout the world.
More images are in my Galleries or at Getty Images
For bookings Contact in Italy Paolo Sgevano HERE For the Rest of the World Birgit Hellinghaus HERE
Songs for a Revolution
/Music and songs have always been very important in wars and revolutions. The one below are from the youth generation of the Middle East. To my brothers and sisters, on this Thursday night...ahead of a Friday of new violence and repression in the middle east on fire in search of freedom....when all the capitalistic eyes are towards a barely recognizable London - turned into a capital of mass hysteria inhabited by flag-wielding crazies...Keep on rising Keep on resisting!
Sout Al Horeya (Song: Voice of Freedom/in Egypt)
Bayan Ra2am Wa7ed (English Subs) from Syria
Shofaa Nubakaa Huna (We Shall Stay Here) Nasheed on Libya
El général, the voice of Tunisia, english subtitles
Just Numbers......
/$1.2 trillion: How much Americans spend annually on goods and services they don’t absolutely need. This Easter weekend, Americans will spend a lot of money on items such as marshmallow peeps, plush bunnies and fake hay, begging a question: How much does the U.S. economy depend on purchases of goods and services people don’t absolutely need?
As it turns out, quite a lot. A non-scientific study of Commerce Department data suggests that in February, U.S. consumers spent an annualized $1.2 trillion on non-essential stuff including pleasure boats, jewelry, booze, gambling and candy. That’s 11.2% of total consumer spending, up from 9.3% a decade earlier and only 4% in 1959, adjusted for inflation. In February, spending on non-essential stuff was up an inflation-adjusted 3.3% from a year earlier, compared to 2.4% for essential stuff such as food, housing and medicine.
To be sure, different people can have different ideas of what should be considered essential. Still, the estimate is probably low. It doesn’t, for example, account for the added cost of certain luxury items such as superfast cars and big houses.
Related articles
- Number of the Week: Americans Buy More Stuff They Don?t Need (blogs.wsj.com)
Minimalist way of life
/Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
I have blogged before about my challenge to 100 things. While I still own more than 100 items...if you take off the equations my work stuff, items I jointly owned with my wife....I am getting very close!
A minimalist lifestyle is the one that is free of complications, clutter,confusion and distraction. Its where you have taken your life and streamlined it to make it the most efficient it can possibly be. It is also more of a process than a destination, minimalism is something that you will need to continually work on as many other factors in life are constantly going to try and complicate things for you. Why ? because the rest of the world has not stumbled onto this way of thinking yet. The vast majority still believe that if something is more complex and complicated then it must be better, rather we as minimalists prefer to look for elegant simplicity as the deciding factor of quality.
Minimalist living, in simplest terms, is to live with as less as possible, mentally and physically until you achieve peace of mind. The concept is simple but achieving it is hard. Just look at the the room where you are now or at the desk you are sitting on: how many items does it contain? Is your desk surrounded by papers, notebooks, books, pens and pencils?
What about your closets, living rooms and bedrooms? How much joy does all this clutter bring you? What clutters you physically also disables you mentally.
While I am no expert at living minimally, it is something that I practice. I know how it is when I started and I believe will free you of the excess baggage that nothing else can bring.
What should be your first step? Get rid of excess. Go through your closets and pick out all the things that you don’t need any more. Donate all clothes to a charity of choice. I promise you, this might seem tiring but at the end of it all, you will feel ecstatic for not only helping yourself, but helping others. I will be writing about how to make this process a bit easier.
What was once considered ‘cheap’ (with a negative connotation) is now expressed as ‘minimal’ and ‘smart’ thanks to this economy.
10 Things I do not own
Television, DVD player, Stereo system, remote controls, Entertainment center or TV stand ( No need for it when you don’t have a TV), Car (Ok I live in Venice...quite easy), Bookcase, Coffee Maker, BBQ, Magazine Rack, Video Games.........
5 Minimalist Quotes I love
1. “In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple.”
2. “If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.”
3. “If you want to be given everything, give everything up.”
4. “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”
5. “When there is no desire, all things are at peace.”
Related articles
- Minimalist Living (lowercaseliving.wordpress.com)
- A Practical Guide to a Minimalist Home (stopandbreathe.com)
- My Favorite Minimalistic Living Blog/site
In Praise of Doubt
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Some of the images I have taken at the Press preview of In Praise of Doubt, click to go to the gallery.
From April 10th 2011 Punta della Dogana will show In Praise of Doubt, a presentation of historical pieces and new works including several site-specific projects that question the idea of uncertainty, our convictions about identity, and revisit the relationship between intimate space and the space of artwork. Among the twenty artists in the exhibition In Praise of Doubt, almost half of them have never been included in previous exhibitions of the François Pinault Collection.
Divided Italy celebrates 150 years of unity
/Italy celebrated yesterday (17 March) the 150th anniversary of its unification. But the country has never been so divided, with separatist forces gaining ground in the north and south alike. Anniversary celebrations took place all over Italy. The government decided to call a national holiday to mark the special occasion.
Separatist movements are gaining ground and the government itself is dominated by a party (Lega Nord) which began its political life by explicitly calling for the secession of the wealthier north from the rest of the country.
Lega Nord's anti-national stance was blatantly confirmed during yesterday's celebrations. In addition to four ministers, just one of the right-wing party's 85 MPs was present at a solemn ceremony in the packed Italian Parliament in Rome.
A gallery of pictures is here
The Venice Carnival Photo Book
/My photo book "Carnival in Venice 2011" is out, it is about 40 pages and more than 50 photographs. You can take a look at the preview of few pages
Every year Venice celebrates Carnival, which lasts for two weeks and ends on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, so today was the final day! Compared to last year, the last day of this year's Venice carnival is estimated to have witnessed a rise in tourist numbers. The combined figures offered by Venice police and hotel operators suggest that as many as 160,000 tourists were in Venice for the annual carnival's closing Sunday.
It has been a very busy and intense 2 weeks, but with lots of fun as well and hundreds of pictures.
Eight letters
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This is all that matters now And that was all that happened anyhow You can look back but don't stare Maybe I can love you out of there
And when I went away what I forgot to say Was all I had to say: Eight letters, three words, one meaning
And outside forces didn't make it easy So I thought I'd go before you leave me Self-preservation was no explanation for anything
(Gary Barlow)
Vaporino
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When you walk in the winter fog, there seems to be no division between water and embankment, life and death, love and hate. You feel that you can walk through walls, through sky, through time.
My Venice is the Venice of winter, the Venice of Cannaregio, the Venice of fog. Walking down the Fte Nove in la nebbia, wearing rubber boots against the high water, it is hard to tell where terra firma leaves off and sky and water begin. The city seems to hang in the air like a mirage. Sounds bounce off the waters and deceive you with their closeness or farness. Figures appear and disappear around corners. The past beckons. It is quite possible to believe that it can take you and never give you back.
Related articles
- The peaceful pleasures of Venice in winter (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Venice Frittelle - Venezia Fritole
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- Image via Wikipedia
Frittelle...Fritoe, or fritters, are the most famous dolci or sweets of Venice during the Carnival Season.
Frittelle begin showing up in pastry shops, Cafes and bakeries, mid Januaryand during the weeks leading up to il Carnevale di Venezia. When Carnival is over, frittelle disappear from the store windows almost as quickly as tourists in masks.
Frittelle come in a variety of styles, both filled and unfilled, the available choices usually include:
Frittelle veneziane. No filling, but with raisins and pine nuts mixed into the fairly heavy dough. After frying, the frittelle are rolled in granulated sugar.
Frittelle con crema chantilly. Filled with a light vanilla-flavored pastry cream and rolled in granulated sugar.
Frittelle con cioccolata. Filled with a mild chocolate-flavored pastry cream and rolled in granulated sugar.
Frittelle con zabaione. Filled with a Marsala-flavored pastry cream and rolled in granulated sugar.
The most famous and renowned places were to get the Frittelle and my vote
- Pasticceria Tonolo: Contrada San pantalon in Dorsoduro 10/10
- Pasticceria Didovitch: Campo Santa Marina 8/10
- Pasticceria Bonifacio Calle degli Albanesi San Marco 9/10
- Panifico Fornareto Calle del Forner Cannaregio 8/10
- Coffe Pasticceria Pitteri Strada Nuova Cannaregio 9/10 but poor Cappuccino!
- Dal Mas Cannaregio Rio Terà Lista de Spagna, 150 8/10
- Rosa Salva (6/10)
The worst Frittelle (IMHO Majer (San Giacomo dell'Orio) : just one word Terrible!!!
This year prices are around 1.10 and 1.30 Euro each but I have seen also a few outrageous 1.80
Stop dreaming, Start flying
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Paradise and Hell panels by Hieronymus Bosch on display in the Tribuna room at Palazzo Grimani on January 10, 2011 in Venice, Italy. The exhibition will stay open until 20th March 2011
Hieronymus Bosch born Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken c. 1450 – August 9, 1516 was an Early Netherlandish painter. His work is known for its use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious concepts and narratives
Related articles
- Gilliam reveals the surreal world of Monty Python art (artisticallyconnected.wordpress.com)
Ephiphany
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Regata della Befana with Arzana'
La Befana vien di notte Con le scarpe tutte rotte Col cappello alla romana Viva, Viva La Befana!
Old wood
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If gondolas are the most famous boat in Venice, they are not the only one. All kind of crafts go tirelessly all over town. A large part of them are made out of modern materials, but many old and classical wooden hulls are still in use.
Related articles
- The peaceful pleasures of Venice in winter (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Venice in Winter (travel.nytimes.com)
Driftwood
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Everything is open
Nothing is set in stone
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You're driftwood floating underwater Breaking into pieces, pieces, pieces Just driftwood, hollow and of no use Waterfalls will find you, bind you, grind you
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So I'm sorry that you've turned to driftwood But you've been drifting for a long, long time
Christmas in Venice
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Father Christmas wearing boots to cope with seasonal high water walks along Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice.
The Christmas of most of the old Italian writers as well as Dickens and even Hollywood movies is all about family, friendship, compassion and goodwill for all , it is about the “Christmas Spirit” that stands for core religious values. On the other side The Christmas that you see every day is about demanding or try to sell expensive gifts, selfishness, eat as much as you can, getting drunk.
I hope you belong to the first category but whatever you choose a Merry Christmas to all my Catholic friends!
A usage of one of my images in Vanity Fair Italy
Related articles
- The spirit of Christmas... (thewayoftheweb.net)
- Christmas Spirit -- it's what you make it (scottpaterson.org)
- The True Spirit of Christmas (socyberty.com)
A way of life
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Acqua Alta or the high tide in Venice is a way of life and people live with it....but few things still surprise me!
Here a grocer from St Erasmo sells his vegetables in Murano during the high tide.
Related articles
- The peaceful pleasures of Venice in winter (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Mamma Mia! Venice Is Under Water! (perezhilton.com)
