Imelda Daniels

Imelda Daniels exhibits still life works at the Spring Exhibition at the Graham Dodd Gallery in Barry, New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. www.grahamdoddgallery.com.au

René Mogensen

The composition "Autumn Liszt" by Danish composer René Mogensen, was performed at the prestigious Steingraeber Haus, a rococco palace from 1754, in Bayreuth, Germany, July 23, 2011, by Nicolas Deletaille on violoncello and Alain Roudier on fortepiano. It was played on Liszt's own fortepiano owned by the Steingraeber Haus. The concert, "A tribute to Liszt", was in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Hungarian born composer and pianist Franz Liszt. A CD (www.contreclisse.com) with the title "The New Apeggione: Walls of Nicosia" with music by René Mogensen performed by Nicolas Deletaille (apeggione) and Alain Roudier (fortepiano) will be presented on September 3rd and 4th at concerts in Flagey, France. At the concerts Deletaille and Roudier will play "Autumn Liszt" and compositions from the CD. www.myspace.com/ReneMogensen

Lone Bullinger

Lone Bullinger showed knitted works at Frue Plads, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 11-13. Lone Bullinger's work can also be seen at www.bullinger.dk

The Mogensen-Bruno Prize

The Mogensen-Bruno Prize, etablished by Else Mogensen in collaboration with the family of the late literary critic and writer Francesco Bruno, born in Ascea in 1899, for the best essay written by a student from the "terza classe della scuola media di Ascea" was awarded at the celebration at the end of the school year on June 11th. The students wrote critical essays about Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes. 1st prize: Egidio Pinto. 2nd prize: Alessandra Mara Pizza. 3rd prize: Arianna Perretta.

Parmenideum

Parmenideum III, a conference on the topic of "Better to be an unhappy human than a happy pig? Was Mill right?" organized by Habeeb Marouf and Lars Aagaard-Mogensen in Ascea, May 27-29. Participants from the international philosophy community read and discussed papers on the above topic.

René Mogensen

Two concerts in Belgium with music my René Mogensen. June 8th at the Logos Foundation in Ghent and June 11th at the Atelier Marcel Hastir in Bruxelles.

Soirée

Soirée at the Mogensen residence on February 25, 2011, with a jazz quartet, Hugh Steinmetz (trumpet) René Mogensen (sax), Gianluca Guida (bass), and Elisa Laurito (drums), and readings by among others Mario Fluri, Salvatore Carbone, Andrea Celano, Maria Pia Lorenzo and Maria Iannuzzi.

Mona Dam

Mona Dam exhibits works withe a touch of antiquity but with a modern imagery at Galleri Phønix in Horsens, Denmark, from May 28 through June 27. Web site: www.monadam.dk

Marietta Leis

Marietta Leis has an exhibition GREEN: A paradox of abundance and scarcity. Recent paintings, sculptures, poems, photos and videos inspired at CompPeung Artist Residency, Thailand. See www.MariettaLeis.com

Bertill Nordahl

Bertill Nordahl has published the novel Krænkelsen (The Violation), a book for juveniles, Forlaget Nielsens. See www.bertillnordahl.com

Asphodel and sunshine

Today the clocks went forward, and it seems as if summer is well on its way. It was a beautiful hot day; we went on a long walk up the hill behind Ascea, where it's very quite and all you can hear is bird song and insects humming. All the different wild flowers are out, I'm no good at names, I'm afraid, but I particularly like the asphodel, which according to Greek legend grows in Hades. In the twilight it does have a ghostly appearance, the pale flowers seem to hover like fire-flies, and the slim stem is almost invisible.
After the walk we went to the beach for an ice-cream, and found it packed with locals enjoying the sunshine while walking along the sea front. No one was actually swimming, though it was probably warm enough from a northern European point of view.

A few more photos from the past few days

A crowd photo from the Carnevale:







Some driftwood we found on the beach - we've made a chandelier out of it. This is a detail of the chandelier.




A bit of Ascea seen from above:

A couple of photos

Cold but sunny today. I have some solar powered lights out on the balcony and they are getting enough energy to shine all night.

These are a couple of photos from my walk: got a good shot of the sunset at last! It sets very fast, you can literally see it sinking.

Upcoming concert including pieces by Rene Mogensen

If you're in Arhus on March 13th, why not go along to this concert - it's free! - in celebration of Niels-Ole Bo Johansen. Two pieces composed by Rene Mogensen are in it.

Carnevale Asceoto

Today was carnival day in Ascea Paese. As usual the floats were impressively large, funny and politically relevant. We had great weather for the parade, which coincided with International Women's day, when random strangers give you sprigs of mimosa blossom. Here are some photos - enjoy!
The 150th anniversary of Italy's unification was a popular theme (above). The anniversary is coming up this year, and with Italians feeling so divided in many ways, especially between North and South, this is a subject ripe for satire.

Translation: So many heroes to unite it (Italy); one idiot to divide it. I think they're probably referring to Berlusconi.


And this is another political scandal and corruption jibe: the theme of this float was 'Politicans in Hawaii'.

The three main characters...

... in Cilentan landscape and lunch. Olive tree in the back ground plus lemon tree underneath it equals salad dressing. To the left, a fig tree for fresh figs or dried figs wrapped around an almond and dipped in chocolate. And so we dine.

Sunset

Since Italy is long and thin, and oriented roughly north-south, and has a massive mountain range down the middle (remember this if you plan to land at Bari airport and travel from there to the Cilento), you tend to get a view of either the sunrise or the sunset. We get the sunset. Here are a couple of photos of it.

The nameless yellow flowers of the Cilento

These yellow flowers are all over the place at the minute. I don't know what they are called. Carpets of them under the olive trees, it doesn't come out very well in a photo but they're so bright they're almost acid yellow. Looks beautiful!

Spring has sprung

Spring is definitely here, and this is how I know: the lizards are out!

They come out in the afternoons and sunbathe - but you only see them once the weather is warm enough. This little one has lost its tail, but it will grow back. I think they're amazing creatures.

The almond blossom is also out, another sign of spring:

I snapped this tree in someone's back garden on my daily walk around the village.

Today's sunset

It was quite misty this evening, but the colours are lovely. To the left is a mimosa tree.

Cook book recommendation - by Leila

I got hold of three River Cafe Pocket Books kind of by chance when I was living in Brussels. They weren't much use to me, either there or in the UK, because although the recipes are simple, the ingredients were either not easily available or, though available, weren't fresh or good enough to make the recipes work (mozarella, for example. Mozarella doesn't travel. Eat it south of Rome or not at all). But down here, they're perfect. I use them all the time. The recipes seem to be made for this area;; they use vegetables and herbs I can buy year-round, less than five minutes walk from my house, most of them are simple and quick to prepare, and taste delicious. So if you're planning to come down here and want a travel-sized cook book that you can really use, I recommend this series.

7th February - by Leila

We've decided to post about daily life here in Ascea as well as about the work produced here. So today was a beautiful warm sunny day. I sat on the balcony to work and even had to put the sun umbrella up when it got too hot. I also started putting some new plants on the balcony, mostly cyclamen. Dinner today: local fennel-flavoured sausages and roast potatoes with thyme, the same bunch I've been using for about two years! So long as you keep it dry, it lasts for ages.

Here's a photo I took on my walk the other day: the spring flowers are out already.