Five fine things found on Facebook (5)

From 1907   Source

How four British migrations defined America Link to article

Incredible ultraviolet shot of Saturn by Hubble!

 Photo credit: @NASA Source

Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) and his long-time friend John T. Lewis
(probably Twain's inspiration for the character "Jim" in "Huckleberry Finn"),
standing together at Quarry Farm, Elmira, New York - 1903. Source

Source

 

WEEKENDER: Cr*p Architecture, by Wiggia

... aka the Good, the Bad and the Ugly - not a lot of good below but I think the title paints the picture.

After my piece on the alliance between Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens about the style of the arts and crafts era, I suffered a dose of reality when my old neighbour and I were talking about a proposed 800-house estate that has just been given planning permission not far from here. The country is currently suffering a housing boom as all can see every time they venture out and little of that exactly lifts the soul.

We seem for some time, decades actually, for reasons that are hard to fathom, accepting of poor design and layout with these new estates, never mind the push for profit over quality with non-existent gardens, smaller than ever rooms and cost-cutting measures such as small windows, all too evident when driving past these building sites all over the country.

Some builders are more guilty than others. One, Persimmon, annually comes last on most fronts but continues to churn out the same poorly-built inappropriate designs and sells them. There seems to be nothing in the council planning offices that suggests or insists the properties are simply not up to scratch, 'go away and come back with something better' is not in their vocabulary; all they see is extra council tax, and enormous legal costs if they should choose to contest any application

Out of the blue a new estate is nearing completion in one of the better areas nearby which is adjacent to an established fairly new one that falls into the category described above. It is a combined effort of affordable smaller houses and flats with the council being responsible for the overview. It is in sharp contrast to the usual dross and has a genuine village-like layout, a subtle mix of materials and colours used and a mix of traditional materials with a modern edge in the finish; it works well and shows with a little effort what can be produced.

It begs the question why, if the council can come up with something like that, do they allow the endless dross to be put up by so many of the major building companies? I think we can guess as to why much of it is passed yet surely there is a better way as many of these new estates are the slums of the future.

Despite this rather rambling intro I am actually going to comment on another aspect of awful design now rampant in the country at large. Nothing new in this: I remember it starting during the housing boom during the late eighties; I am referring of course to the home extension.

                             There is a house somewhere behind this example of box on box.

You cannot pick up a magazine such as Homes and Gardens without being assailed by endless space-adding extensions added at in many cases at great cost to what were humdrum terraced and other properties that are now being described as the new trendy part of (fill in as necessary), of what ever borough is being taken over by those that want to live nearer the centre and have the dosh to improve? those same once mundane houses.

This piece was sparked by having the same conversation with my old neighbour when it switched to the property next door which the owners are just moving back into; two doctors having spent eight months in rented while the house was rejigged to accommodate a totally inappropriate rear extension which we have labelled the U boat pen, for viewed from the rear that is exactly what it looks like, completely out of scale to the rest of the house; so much so that the upstairs windows on one side where the extension crosses over have had to be turned on their side as they would have lost the bottom of them, so high has the extension intruded on the original building.

No doubt the interior will give them what they wanted, a huge kitchen/living/dining area, but surely there was a way that could have been achieved without ending up with a concrete bunker.

In the case of this property which is detached it has little impact on my neighbour because of a row of brick built outbuildings on that side which hides it.

                                                       Container with cladding!

Others elsewhere are not so lucky. The relaxing of the planning laws twice under this government has given rise to not just hideous impinging rear extensions but equally hideous loft conversions, all no doubt adding space and value, especially in the environs of the capital, but in the vast majority of cases with some terrible design flaws and costs to neighbours in loss of light and privacy.

Nobody has the right to determine what a neighbour should be allowed to do to their own property, but there used to be limits and considerations as to what was permissible; that has all been swept away.

“The Town and Country Planning General Permitted Development Order 2015 (GPDO) was designed to free homeowners and councils from expensive red tape when “uncontentious” modifications to properties are planned. The rules allow both homeowners and developers to extend accommodation by up to 75% without planning permission.

"Opinions differ, however, on what counts as “uncontentious”. Single and double-storey side and rear extensions of up to eight metres in length are permitted under the order, as well as loft conversions and large outbuildings covering up to 50% of a property’s land.”

                                                        Dark days for the neighbours

This link shows how the planning rules relaxation has put some people in an impossible position regarding what their neighbours can put up. Many of the extensions today are not neighbour-friendly, to put it mildly.

https://www.avalonbuild.co.uk/blog/the-10-worst-permitted-development-loopholes/

And as with all else these days fashion dictates they have certain types of door openings that all look the same. Crittall windows for instance are now back in fashion everywhere one looks; box on box has been done to death; zinc roofing ditto along with timber cladding; all used with no thought for the building they are attaching to.

Modern extensions, well designed, can look the part on older buildings if well-conceived and designed, after all many listed buildings have had extensions from different periods added and many of them are not exactly harmonious; but many of them are, we should be learning from them.

Many of the listed building rules re renovation vary according to county or borough and are equally daft, but that is another subject.

                                                Where are the Teletubbies?

Many of today's extensions cost a small fortune within the Capital, but in nearly all cases this layout is dwarfed by the return should they sell. Outside these areas the gain is often negligible or neutral, which is why we see most of these monstrosities in city centres.

I presume an architect had a hand in this;
another example of the original property being obliterated by the awful extension.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Henry Purcell's Tavern Songs, by JD

Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) https://baroquemusic.org/biopurcell.html

One of the most famous English composers was featured in a recent BBC2 programme which I watched and enjoyed last week. One thing I did not previously know was that Purcell was to be found in the taverns of London regularly enjoying a drink or three and he wrote a number of tavern songs some of which were rather rude. (I have been trying to find lyrics but have not so far found any)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00klcb4/episodes/player

As a variation on the usual Friday music format I have selected a few of the songs and added a link at the bottom to The Deller Consort's rendition of sixteen of the songs for you to enjoy at your leisure ( and sing along if you are so inclined!)

Come, let us drink. Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell -- Sir Walter enjoying his damsel -- Deller Consort

Once, Twice, Thrice

Henry Purcell -- The Miller's daughter -- Deller Consort

Purcell: Z 360. Bacchus is a pow'r divine - Abadie (live)

Purcell: Pox On You - Dante Ferrara

At the Tavern (Extract no.2)

- - - - - - - - -

16 of Henry Purcell's Tavern Songs by the Deller Consort -

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpwl3VH9eB1qoxVm3ENEzlMK4-1CuxcpL

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 24 February 1962

At #5 is Leroy Vandyke with 'Walk On By':

Giles cartoon for this week: The first American in space

(See 20 February below for details of John Glenn's historic spaceflight)

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

18 February: 'Two pilots of the French Air Force, described as "renegades", defied orders, broke away from a routine mission over French Algeria, flew their planes across the border into Morocco, and then attacked a rebel camp in the city of Oujda with rockets and machine gun fire. The two, believed to be members of the Organisation Armée Secrète, then flew their planes to Saïda, Algeria, landed, and deserted.'

20 February: 'The United States placed an astronaut into orbit for the first time, as John Glenn was sent aloft from Cape Canaveral aboard on third Project Mercury mission, in the space capsule Friendship 7. Glenn was launched at 9:47 a.m. local time and attained orbit 12 minutes later. After three circuits of the Earth, Glenn left orbit at 2:20 p.m., landed in the Atlantic Ocean at 2:43, and was recovered by the destroyer U.S.S. Noa at 3:04. Glenn, the first American astronaut, returned to outer space on October 29, 1998, at the age of 77, becoming the oldest man to orbit the Earth.'

21 February: 'Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev first danced together, in a Royal Ballet performance of Giselle at Covent Garden in London, creating one of the greatest partnerships in the history of dance. Nureyev had defected from the U.S.S.R. almost eight months earlier on June 16, 1961. He and Fonteyn received 23 curtain calls from the audience.'

    'On the day after John Glenn's historic flight, Soviet Premier Khrushchev sent a telegram to U.S. President Kennedy, proposing that the two nations co-operate on their space program. The first joint venture took place in 1975.'

22 February: 'Pope John XXIII signed Veterum sapientia ("Ancient Wisdom") as an apostolic constitution, the highest possible papal decree. The declaration, published the next day, directed that Roman Catholic seminary students should not only be instructed on the use of the Latin language, but that lectures should be given in Latin, "a bond of unity between the Christian peoples of Europe". The Pope also prohibited priests from arguing against the use of Latin, and created an institute to create new words in Contemporary Latin to keep it apace of modern developments. In 1963, the second Vatican council approved an order retaining Latin for specific rituals, but native languages for most other purposes.'

23 February: 'Astronaut John Glenn arrived in Cape Canaveral to a hero's welcome and was reunited with his family for the first time since before going into space. U.S. President John F. Kennedy, for whom Cape Canaveral was renamed during the 1960s, greeted Glenn and personally awarded him the NASA Special Services Medal. Kennedy praised Glenn for "professional skill, unflinching courage and extraordinary ability to perform a most difficult task under physical stress." It was then that Glenn revealed in an interview that the heat shield on his capsule began to break up upon re-entry, the loss of which would have been fatal. Glenn calmly said, "it could have been a bad day for everybody."'

24 February: 'The United States government began its first telephone and television transmissions via satellite, bouncing signals off of Echo 1, which had been launched on August 12, 1960.'

UK chart hits, week ending 24 February 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

Ukraine: do we need the War Game? by Sackerson

I don’t know whether the Stop The War Coalition are or contain fifth columnists, as Iain Dale asserts https://www.iaindale.com/articles/why-i-accuse-the-stop-the-war-coalition-of-containing-fifth-columnists , though when he says he has ‘lost patience’ he reminds me of a certain testy old US President. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7chQfQ67SM I like Mr Dale’s output generally but I suppose that blogpost is another sign that we are entering Stage Three of ‘groupthink’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Groupthink-Study-Delusion-Christopher-Booker/dp/1472959051 , where alternative voices are to be bullied and shut down.

In this context the Daily Mail is to be commended for going ahead and publishing Peter Hitchens’ article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10540829/PETER-HITCHENS-blame-arrogant-foolish-West-Ukraine-crisis.html castigating the West for its arrogance and folly in continuing to treat Russia as an enemy after the fall of Communism; though even the mighty Mail feels compelled to push it back into page 13 of the print edition and label it ‘A personal viewpoint.’ Somehow one senses masks and disposable gloves.

If you rely on the mass media you could be forgiven for thinking that Russia’s tanks and troops are already rolling into the Donbass; not so, according to a well-connected blogger https://therealslog.com/2022/02/23/exclusive-no-putin-invasion-of-ukraine/ who quotes a French diplomat as saying to him (Tuesday 22 Feb):

‘It is now clear that there have been Russian peacekeeping troops in the Donbass for at least five years. Their presence there has been maintained. Putin has signed a decree allowing for further troops to go there, but there is no NATO evidence as yet that any new troops have arrived.’

On the other hand, as The Independent reported back in December https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-ukraine-army-donbass-troops-b1967532.html , Ukraine by then had already positioned half its army on the other side of the conflict zone – some 125,000 troops. One wonders how one of the poorest countries in Europe https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/gdp-per-capita-ppp?continent=europe can afford to maintain a standing army a quarter-million strong and bombard its eastern populace for seven years rather than implement the Minsk Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements#Minsk_Protocol to split the country into autonomous regions. We could do with some quality mainstream journalism.

Speaking of the latter, as tensions mount it is disappointing to hear from the recently-freed Craig Murray https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/02/ukraine-where-to-find-the-truth-in-enormous-detail/ (appeal against alleged miscarriage of Scottish justice ongoing) that the independent team of observers known as OSCE, specified in the same Protocol, has just been abandoned by the USA, UK and Canada, three Western members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes , at the time when they are most needed. OSCE was not allowed to access the site of the kindergarten shelled last week, allegedly a false flag attack by the eastern Ukrainians themselves, though according to another independent journalist, the intrepid Eve Bartlett, the munition was fired from an ‘American M141 bunker-type grenade launcher’ from the west. https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/02/18/ukraine-appears-to-have-staged-a-kindergarden-attack-to-cover-its-crimes-fuel-anti-donbass-propaganda/  

Doubtless there are several drivers behind these murky goings-on. One will be Russian politics post the Soviet collapse, which will have left many Russians suddenly finding themselves effectively stranded in countries no longer part of the communist empire. President Putin’s rewritten Constitution in 2020 empowers Russia to defend its citizens abroad https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/belarusalert/putins-new-constitution-spells-out-modern-russias-imperial-ambitions/ ; at the risk of attracting Mr Dale’s ire I might cite Britain’s similar approach in the past – the War of Jenkins' Ear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins%27_Ear , the robust defence of the Falkland Islanders ( who were technically not even British citizens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Nationality_(Falkland_Islands)_Act_1983 ) and so on. We remain to be convinced that Putin simply has a plan for European domination; past history shows the traffic has sometimes been the other way.

Another factor is the longstanding US/NATO policy of Russian containment, first urged by George Kennan in 1946. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116178.pdf This made sense when the USSR was indeed what Reagan called an ‘evil empire’; the pity is that even when the battle had been won by the West – in 1989 Yeltsin was ‘sick with despair for the Soviet people’ and knew the end was near when he saw the cornucopia of a Texan supermarket https://www.nhregister.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php - the policy continued. Five years after the collapse, President Carter’s former adviser Zbigniew Brzeziński wrote a book on American geostrategy  https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/36/36669B7894E857AC4F3445EA646BFFE1_Zbigniew_Brzezinski_-_The_Grand_ChessBoard.doc.pdf in which he worried that

‘… any ejection of America by its Western partners from its perch on the western periphery would automatically spell the end of America's participation in the game on the Eurasian chessboard, even though that would probably also mean the eventual subordination of the western extremity to a revived player occupying the middle space.’

25 years on, after President Trump had told European NATO allies to shoulder more of the burden of their defence https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/11/donald-trump-tells-nato-allies-to-spend-4-of-gdp-on-defence , we face that possibility. Now, it seems to be about containing, not lethally expansionary Communism, but a nascent power bloc in eastern Europe, a sort of Eurasian EU https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/feb/18/brief-primer-vladimir-putin-eurasian-union-trade  . Is it our business to prevent that, at much expense of blood and treasure? Should we have outgrown Great Game-playing in the new era of potential nuclear global destruction?

Ukraine is an awkwardly complex corner of Brzeziński’s chessboard: the Washington Post illustrated its long history in 2015 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/09/maps-how-ukraine-became-ukraine/   and here is a simplified overview (reproduced on MoA https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/02/some-bits-on-ukraine.html) :

The sudden changes brought about by the defeat of the Red Menace has presented challenges for everyone and we should proceed with caution. The area around the Black Sea has changed radically: in 1988 it was practically a Red lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comecon#/media/File:Europe_1988.svg , except for the shores of eastern Greece and northern Turkey; in recent years, NATO allies have started to encircle it and if Ukraine joins up the lake will be largely Blue. NATO members have permitted the siting of weapons closer and closer to Russia’s western borders; the Great Game here is almost like the children’s game of ‘What’s The Time, Mister Wolf?’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_the_time,_Mr_Wolf%3F Is it necessary?

Is it affordable? Perhaps when we bemoan the state of our economy, of the NHS and the meanness of our State pension system compared with those in the EU, we should remember how WWI impoverished the UK – the Twenties did not roar in Britain - and WWII very nearly bankrupted us completely. We’ve been struggling against headwinds ever since 1914.

Sixty years ago, Dean Acheson told West Point that ‘Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.’ https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00000015 It’s time to grow up and not be anybody’s playground sidekick, unless it is in our national interest.

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 17 February 1962

At #4 is Eden Kane with 'Forget Me Not':

Giles cartoon for this week: Crufts

The famous dog show started in 1891 and has been held annually since then, apart from some of the years in the two World Wars.

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

11 February: 'Negotiations, between the government of France and Algerian independence leaders, opened at Les Rousses, a remote village in the French Alps, leading to a preliminary agreement on a transitional government.'

12 February: 'Spike Milligan and John Antrobus's play, The Bed-Sitting Room, is premièred at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.' Here is the film version (1969):

13 February: 'A crowd of between 150,000 and 500,000 people marched in Paris in the first massive protest against the continuing Algerian war, which had gone into its eighth year. The occasion was the funeral ceremony for five of the nine people who had been killed by police in the Charonne metro station the previous Thursday. With many of the participants walking off of their jobs to protest, business in Paris and much of France was brought to a halt.'

14 February: '"A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy", produced by CBS News and hosted by American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and CBS reporter Charles Collingwood, was broadcast on television by CBS and on NBC at 10:00 pm Eastern time. Attracting 46,000,000 TV viewers, or three out of every four households in America, it was the highest rated television program up to that time.' Video address: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x74jyr0

15 February: 'In Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), the legislature for the Republic of Katanga voted to ratify President Moise Tshombe's declaration that the breakaway state should end its secession and return to the Republic of the Congo.'

16 February: 'Voting in India's national parliamentary election commenced, with 210 million voters going to the polls. There were 14,744 candidates for the 494 seats in the Lok Sabha and the 2,930 seats in the legislatures of 13 Indian states. The final result was that 119,904,284 eligible voters participated, and the Indian National Congress, led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, won 361 (or about 73%) of the seats. The Communist Party of India was a distant second with 29 seats (6%).'

    'U.S. President Kennedy issued nine Executive Orders, numbered 10095 to 11105, delegating "emergency preparedness functions" for various federal agencies and departments, to be implemented in the event of a national emergency that required a declaration of martial law.'

17 February: 'In the North Sea flood of 1962, Hurricane-force winds and heavy rains swept across West Germany's North Sea coast and sent the waters flooding over the seawalls. There were 345 deaths in West Germany, 281 of them in Hamburg, when the Elbe River overflowed. An estimated 500,000 people were left homeless.'

    'U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara outlined the doctrine of flexible response, the nuclear strategy of the Kennedy administration, in an address to the American Bar Foundation in Chicago. The plan called for building a large enough nuclear arsenal that the United States would have the ability to launch a second strike of nuclear missiles against the Soviets even after an initial exchange of destruction.'

UK chart hits, week ending 17 February 1962 (tracks in italics have been featured previously)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

Five fine things found on Facebook (4)

 

“The Nutcracker”, Tchaikovsky; The London Royal Ballet Source

Bone-Titla. San Carlos Apache. 1913 Source

Built in the 18th century, this is one of the oldest buildings
in Hattfjelldal municipality in Norland, Norway Source

King Tutankhamun's shoes Source

Everest Source