ALBERT FINNEY: FROM 'THE ENTERTAINER' TO 'SKYFALL'

Albert Finney

Today, The Grandma wants to homage Albert Finney, one of the most wonderful and unforgettable English actors of the history, who died in London yesterday. 

Albert Finney is one of the greatest actors of the English theatre and cinema and his films will be remembered forever.

Before talking about Finney, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 19).

More information: Vocabulary 19-Going Out

Albert Finney Jr. (9 May 1936-7 February 2019) was an English actor, producer and director of film, television and theatre. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began to work in the theatre as a Shakespearean actor before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in the theatre. He maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television.

Albert Finney & Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road

A recipient of BAFTA , Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards, Finney was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984); he was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich (2000). His performance as Winston Churchill in the BBC–HBO television biographical film The Gathering Storm (2002) saw him receive a number of accolades.

Finney was born in Salford, Lancashire, the son of Alice (née Hobson) and Albert Finney, a bookmaker. He was educated at Tootal Drive Primary School, Salford Grammar School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from which he graduated in 1956.

More information: BBC

In February 1956 John Fernald, principal of RADA, gave Finney his first major role in the Vanbrugh Theatre's student production of Ian Dallas' play The Face of Love, as Shakespeare's Troilus. Finney graduated from RADA and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express

His career began in the theatre, and he made his first appearance on the London stage in 1958, in Jane Arden's The Party, directed by Charles Laughton, who starred in the production along with his wife, Elsa Lanchester. Then, in 1959, he appeared at Stratford in the title role in Coriolanus, replacing an ill Laurence Olivier.

Finney created the title role in Luther, the 1961 play by John Osborne depicting the life of Martin Luther, one of the foremost instigators of the Protestant Reformation. He performed the role with the English Stage Company in London, Nottingham, Paris and New York.

His first film appearance was in Tony Richardson's The Entertainer (1960), with Laurence Olivier, and he made his breakthrough in the same year with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, also 1960. This led to his starring in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film Tom Jones.

More information: The Guardian

Prior to this, Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of Lawrence of Arabia after a successful, and elaborate, screen-test that took four days to shoot.

After Charlie Bubbles (1968), which he also directed, his film appearances became less frequent as he focused more on acting on stage. During this period, one of his high-profile film roles was as Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the film Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

With Jessica Lange, Big Fish & Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

He continues working with acclaimed roles in Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012), and the James Bond film Skyfall (2012).

He received Tony Award nominations for Luther (1964) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1968), and also starred on stage in Love for Love, Strindberg's Miss Julie, Black Comedy, The Country Wife, Alpha Beta, Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, Tamburlaine the Great, Another Time and, his last stage appearance, in 1997, Art by Yasmina Reza, which preceded the 1998 Tony Award-winning Broadway run.

More information: Anglotopia

He won an Olivier Award for Orphans in 1986 and won three Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Best Actor. Finney also directed and played the lead role of Sidney Kentridge in The Biko Inquest, a 1984 dramatisation of the inquest into the death of Steve Biko which was filmed for TV following a London run. In 1994 he played a gay bus conductor in early 1960's Dublin in A Man of No Importance.

In 2002 his critically acclaimed portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm won him British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Emmy and Golden Globe awards as Best Actor. He also played the title role in the television series My Uncle Silas, based on the short stories by H. E. Bates, about a roguish but lovable poacher-cum-farm labourer looking after his great-nephew. The show ran for two series broadcast in 2001 and 2003.

More information: CNN

To be a character who feels a deep emotion,

one must go into the memory's vault

and mix in a sad memory from one's own life.

Albert Finney

GUSTAV KLIMT: AUSTRIAN SYMBOLISM IN PAINTING

Gustav Klimt

Today, The Grandma as received a wonderful visit. Tina Picotes, who has been travelling around Central Europe, has returned to Barcelona.

Tina has met with The Grandma to talk about her travel and one of their favourite painters, Gustav Klimt, who died on a day like today in 1918.

Before the arrival of Tina Picotes, The Grandma has studied two new and interesting lessons of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 17 & 18).

More information: Vocabulary 17-Other Countries & 18-In the Classroom

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862–February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. In addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

More information: Klim Museum

Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. As he developed a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his golden phase, many of which include gold leaf. Klimt's work was an important influence on his younger contemporary Egon Schiele.

Birch Forest by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary, the second of seven children. His mother, Anna Klimt (née Finster), had an unrealized ambition to be a musical performer. His father, Ernst Klimt the Elder, formerly from Bohemia, was a gold engraver. All three of their sons displayed artistic talent early on. Klimt's younger brothers were Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt.

Klimt lived in poverty while attending the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, a school of applied arts and crafts, now the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he studied architectural painting from 1876 until 1883. He revered Vienna's foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart.

Klimt readily accepted the principles of a conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic. In 1877 his brother, Ernst, who, like his father, would become an engraver, also enrolled in the school. The two brothers and their friend, Franz Matsch, began working together and by 1880 they had received numerous commissions as a team that they called the Company of Artists. They also helped their teacher in painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstraße, including a successful series of Allegories and Emblems.

More information: Gustav-Klimt

In 1888 Klimt received the Golden Order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for his contributions to murals painted in the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also became an honorary member of the University of Munich and the University of Vienna.

In 1892 Klimt's father and brother Ernst both died, and he had to assume financial responsibility for his father's and brother's families. The tragedies also affected his artistic vision and soon he would move towards a new personal style. Characteristic of his style at the end of the 19th century is the inclusion of Nuda Veritas (naked truth) as a symbolic figure in some of his works, including Ancient Greece and Egypt (1891), Pallas Athene (1898) and Nuda Veritas (1899).

Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt

Historians believe that Klimt with the nuda veritas denounced both the policy of the Habsburgs and Austrian society, which ignored all political and social problems of that time. 

In the early 1890s Klimt met Austrian fashion designer Emilie Louise Flöge, a sibling of his sister-in-law, who was to be his companion until the end of his life.

His painting, The Kiss (1907–08), is thought to be an image of them as lovers. He designed many costumes that she produced and modeled in his works.

Klimt's Golden Phase was marked by positive critical reaction and financial success. Many of his paintings from this period included gold leaf. Klimt had previously used gold in his Pallas Athene (1898) and Judith I (1901), although the works most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907–08).

Klimt travelled little, but trips to Venice and Ravenna, both famous for their beautiful mosaics, most likely inspired his gold technique and his Byzantine imagery.

More information: Gustav Klimt

In 1904, he collaborated with other artists on the lavish Palais Stoclet, the home of a wealthy Belgian industrialist that was one of the grandest monuments of the Art Nouveau age. Klimt's contributions to the dining room, including both Fulfillment and Expectation, were some of his finest decorative works, and as he publicly stated, probably the ultimate stage of my development of ornament.

In 1911 his painting Death and Life received first prize in the world exhibitions in Rome. In 1915 Anna, his mother, died. Klimt died three years later in Vienna on February 6, 1918, having suffered a stroke and pneumonia due to the worldwide influenza epidemic of that year. He was buried at the Hietzinger Cemetery in Hietzing, Vienna. Numerous paintings by him were left unfinished.

More information: Austria

Whoever wants to know something about me 

-as an artist which alone is significant- 

they should look attentively at my pictures 

and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.

Gustav Klimt

GARRAF REGION: SIX TOWNS SURROUNDED BY NATURE

The Grandma visits Garraf Natural Park

Claire Fontaine & The Grandma has visited El Garraf, a wonderful county near Barcelona where you can find six unforgettable towns with strong personality, old history, many cultural events, amazing natural landscapes and nice inhabitants.

Last summer, The Grandma also visited the Garraf Astronomical Observatory with Joseph de Ca'th Lon who knows this zone perfectly and who studies another kind of population which lives in this zone, the Peregrine Falcon.

Before arriving by train to Vilanova i la Geltrú, the capital of the county, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 16).

More information: Vocabulary 16-Useful Things

Vilanova i la Geltrú is a city in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia and the capital of the Garraf county. Historically a fishing port, the city has a growing population of approximately 66,000, and is situated 40 km south-west of Barcelona.

The town has a long history, and experienced an efflorescence during the Romantic period evidenced by a wealth of opulent 19th century buildings. The atmospheric town square, the Plaça de la Vila, and many of its iconic public buildings were principally financed by Josep Tomàs Ventosa Soler (1797-1874) a textile magnate who made his fortune in Cuba. A monument featuring a bronze statue of Ventosa stands in the center of the square. An identical monument stands in Matanzas, Cuba, where both statues were forged.

Claire Fontaine in Plaça de la Vila, Vilanova i la Geltrú

During the dictatorship, large numbers of people fleeing poverty in Southern Spain settled in Vilanova. They are sometimes referred to by historians as fugitives of fascism. Although they experienced prejudice they became increasingly accepted and known as els altres Vilanovins or the other Vilanovins.

By 1970, a majority of the town's population had been born elsewhere. In the first decade of the 21st century, there was another wave of immigrants, called nouvinguts or newcomers locally, this time primarily from North Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.

Located 46 km from Barcelona and 44 km from Tarragona, it has the third largest port of Catalonia and is a major fishing port. The Brotherhood of Pescadors of Vilanova derives from the powerful and ancient Brotherhood of Sant Elm, founded in 1579.

And it is through participating in local festivals that Vilanovins, whether natives or recently arrived newcomers, intensify their sense of belonging to a community dedicated to active engagement between neighbors or convivència (coexistence).

More information: Vilanova Turisme

Canyelles is a town in the northeast of the Garraf county in the south of Barcelona province, Catalonia. It is home to a 15th-century castle.

Main festivals in Canyelles include Xatonada Popula, Festa Major de Canyelles (July 22), Petit Festa Major (September 10), and Fira de Santa Llúcia (1st Sunday in December).

More information: Garraf Turisme

Cubelles is a municipality in Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona. It is situated in the county of Garraf.

Visiting Canyelles and Cubelles Castles, Garraf

Josep Andreu i Lasserre (April 23, 1896-July 26, 1983), best known as Charlie Rivel, was an internationally known Catalan circus clown who was born in Cubelles. His parents Pere Andreu Pausas (Catalan) and Marie-Louise Lasarre (Occitan) were circus artists as well.

He debuted at the age of three and formed the group Los Rivels with his brothers Polo Rivel and René Rivel. He took his artistic first name from Charlie Chaplin whom he encountered first in 1910. Each respected the other. Legend has it that Chaplin later asked him: Is it you who imitate me or I who imitate you? He later discovered his definitive routine, featuring a chair, a guitar and a long jersey.

In 1971, he appeared in Federico Fellini's film Clowns.

The Charlie Rivel Hall in Cubelles is a museum dedicated to him.

More information: Garraf Turisme

Sant Pere de Ribes is a town in the center of the Garraf county, in Barcelona province, Catalonia. The remains of a 12th-century castle once ruled by the troubadour Guillem de Ribes are in the town.

Main festivals include: Festa Major de Sant Pere (June 29), Festa Major de Sant Pau (January 25), Festa Major de Santa Eulàlia (February 12) and Festa Major de Sant Joan (June 24).

More information: Enric Sagnier

Olivella is a municipality in Catalonia, in the province of Barcelona. It is situated in the county of Garraf.

Visiting Sant Pere de Ribes and Olivella, Garraf

The first known village in the area was founded in 992 around a castle known as Castell vell.

The inhabitants lived off dryland agriculture. This initial nucleus was almost abandoned after the black plague caused numerous deaths. The area was resettled in the 14th century and gradually prospered. Nowadays there are some new housing developments in the area as well as the Sakya Tashi Ling. Buddhist monastery, located in Plana Novella.

The village is located in the Garraf Massif, in a natural park area, not far from Barcelona.

More information: Meet Up

Sitges is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Catalonia, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival and Carnival. Located between the Garraf Massif and the sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspots, and historical sites. There are 17 beaches.

Visiting Sitges, Garraf

While the roots of Sitges' artistic reputation date back to the late 19th century, when Catalan painter Santiago Rusiñol took up residence there during the summer, the town became a centre for the 1960s counterculture in mainland Spain, in Francoist Spain, and became known as Ibiza in miniature.

Sitges has been referred to as the Saint-Tropez of Catalonia, with property prices approaching those of the most expensive European cities, the main reason for this being the setting by the sea and the surrounding Parc Natural del Garraf.

Almost 35% of the approximately 26,000 permanent inhabitants are from the Netherlands, the UK, France and Scandinavia, whose children attend international schools in the area.

Human presence in the area dates to at least the Neolithic area, and an Iberian settlement from the 4th century. In the 1st century BC it included two separated villages, later absorbed by the Romans.

During the Middle Ages, a castle was built in Sitges, owned by the bishopric of Barcelona, which later ceded it to count Mir Geribert (1041). In the 12th century the town fell under the rule of the Sitges family. The latter held it until 1308, when Agnes of Sitges sold the town to Bernat de Fonollar, after whose death it went to the Pia Almoina, a charitable institution, to which it belonged until 1814.

More information: Visit Sitges 

A national park is not a playground.

It's a sanctuary for nature and for humans 

who will accept nature on nature's own terms.

Michael Frome

FEBRUARY, 3 1959, WHEN THE MUSIC DIED 60 YEARS AGO

The Grandma homages Holly, Valens & Big Bopper

Today, the world of the music commemorates the 60th anniversary of the day that the music died. It was February, 3 1959 when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson died in a plane crash.

This event inspired Don McLean to write his famous and awesome song American Pie, one of the most beautiful songs of the history of the folk music.

The Grandma, who is a great fan of folk and country music, wants to homage these three eternal musicians who died very young but continue living in our memories every time that we listen to their wonderful songs.

Before remembering these three genius, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 15).

More information: Vocabulary 15-Transport

Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936-February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll.

He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, and he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.

Buddy Holly

He made his first appearance on local television in 1952, and the following year he formed the group Buddy and Bob with his friend Bob Montgomery. In 1955, after opening for Elvis Presley, he decided to pursue a career in music. He opened for Presley three times that year; his band's style shifted from country and western to entirely rock and roll. Holly's recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley, who had become famous for producing orchestrated country hits for stars like Patsy Cline. Its success was Peggy Sue.

In early 1959, he assembled a new band, consisting of future country music star Waylon Jennings (bass), famed session musician Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), and embarked on a tour of the midwestern U.S.

During his short career, Holly wrote, recorded, and produced his own material. He is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. He was a major influence on later popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Elton John. He was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986.

More information: National Public Radio

Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941-February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was a Mexican American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted eight months, as it abruptly ended when he died in a plane crash.

Ritchie Valens

During this time, he had several hits, most notably La Bamba, which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song. Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. He also had the American number 2 hit Donna'.

In early 1959, Valens was traveling the Midwest on a multiple-act rock-and-roll tour dubbed The Winter Dance Party. Accompanying him were Buddy Holly, Dion and the Belmonts, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Frankie Sardo. All performers were augmented by Holly's new backup band, including Tommy Allsup on guitar, Waylon Jennings on bass, and Carl Bunch on drums.

Conditions for the performers on the tour buses were abysmal and bitterly cold. Midwest weather took its toll on the party. Carl Bunch had to be hospitalized with severely frostbitten feet, and several others, including Valens and the Big Bopper, caught the flu. The show was split into two acts, with Valens closing the first act. After Bunch was hospitalized, Carlo Mastrangelo of the Belmonts took over the drumming duties. When Dion and the Belmonts were performing, the drum seat was taken by either Valens or Buddy Holly.

More information: National Public Radio

Jiles Perry "J. P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930-February 3, 1959), known as The Big Bopper, was an American musician, singer and songwriter whose rockabilly look, style, voice, and exuberant personality made him an early rock and roll star. He is best known for his 1958 recording of Chantilly Lace.

J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson

Richardson, who played guitar, began his musical career as a songwriter. George Jones later recorded Richardson's White Lightning, which became Jones' first No. 1 country hit in 1959. Richardson also wrote Running Bear for Johnny Preston, his friend from Port Arthur, Texas. The inspiration for the song came from Richardson's childhood memory of the Sabine River, where he heard stories about Indian tribes. Richardson sang background on Running Bear, but the recording was not released until August 1959, six months after his death. The song became a No. 1 hit for three weeks in January 1960.

Richardson's first single, Beggar to a King, had a country flavor, but failed to gain any chart action. He soon cut Chantilly Lace as The Big Bopper for Pappy Daily's D label.

In November 1958, he scored a second hit, a raucous novelty tune entitled The Big Bopper's Wedding, in which Richardson pretends to be getting cold feet at the altar. Both Chantilly Lace and Big Bopper's Wedding were receiving top 40 radio airplay through January, 1959.

More information: Legacy

After the February 2, 1959, performance in Clear Lake, Iowa (which ended around midnight), Holly, Richardson, and Valens flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered. Valens was on the plane because he won a coin toss with Holly's backup guitarist Tommy Allsup. Holly's bassist, Waylon Jennings, voluntarily gave up his seat on the plane to J.P. Richardson, who was ill with the flu.

Just after 1:00 am on February 3, 1959, the three-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza departed for Fargo, North Dakota, and crashed a few minutes after takeoff for reasons still unknown. At just 17 years old, Valens was the youngest to die in the crash.

More information: The Fotos Gratis

On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as the Day the Music Died, when this plane crash accident claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson.

The tragedy inspired singer Don McLean to write his 1971 hit American Pie, immortalizing February 3 as The Day the Music Died.

More information: USA Today

 That song didn't just happen. It grew out of my experiences.

'American Pie' was part of my process of self-awakening: 

a mystical trip into my past.

Don McLean

CANDLEMASS & THE GROUNDHOG DAY PREDICT WEATHER

Old memories at Candelaria Church, Tenerife

February, 2 is a special day for The Grandma because some different events in different points of the world happen to celebrate the Candlemass day. In Canary Islands, they celebrate the festivity of The Virgin of Candelaria, their the patron saint; in Mallorca, it is possible to contemplate an incredible phenomenon of light in the cathedral of Palma, and in Punxsutawney, they celebrate the Groundhog day, a festivity where a groundhog predicts the weather for the next months. The Grandma has visited Molins de Rei, a beautiful city near Barcelona, where The Virgin of Candelaria is also its patron.

Candlemas has got old origins and lots of European cultures celebrates it. A Catalan proverb says that if Candlemass cries, winter is finishing but if Candlemass smiles winter is going to be longer (Si la Candelera plora, l'hivern és fora; si la Candelera riu, l'hivern és viu).

One of the most popular an important Catalan poets of the 19th century, Jacint Verdaguer, wrote a beautiful poem about Candlemass that is remembered on a day like today in different events around the Catalan lands.

Before celebrating Candlemass day, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 14).

More information: Vocabulary 14-The World Around Us

Candlemas, also spelled Candlemass, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Christian Holy Day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

The Virgin of Candelaria or Our Lady of Candelaria, popularly called La Morenita, celebrates the Virgin Mary on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. The center of worship is located in the city of Candelaria in Tenerife. She is depicted as a Black Madonna. The Royal Basilica Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Candelaria is considered the main church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the Canary Islands. She is the patron saint of the Canary Islands. Her feast is celebrated on February 2 and August 15, the patronal feast of the Canary Islands.

More information: Secret Tenerife

Twice a year, on February 2nd and November 11, this spectacular phenomenon appears in the Cathedral of Palma. But what is this?

The reasons for the massive interest in this event, has its roots in the Christian faith.

February 2nd: The day when Jesus was presented in the temple of Jerusalem and Mary was purified after childbirth, also known as the Calendria.

November 11: The day of Saint Martin of Tours, a saint that honoured in one of the chapels of La Seu.

At 8:30 in the morning, the sun rises over La Seu. The sun beams breaks through the greater of the two rosettes in the facade wall of the cathedral, and causes a reflection of playful colours just under the rosette on the opposite facade wall.

The Grandma contemplates the '8' in Palma Cathedral

The sensation lasts about 15 minutes, during which hundreds of excited guests adores the symphony of colours lighting up the majestic interior of one of Europe’s most spectacular constructions.

The reflection of lights and the rosette of the facade forms the number 8.

In Christian traditions, the number 8 has a symbolic value. Back in time, Christian writers found, that when an extra day was added to the natural seven day week, the gate to eternity (heaven) was opened. The number 8 represents a new start, to be born again and resurrected, just like Jesus showed himself eight times after his resurrection.

Also notice, that the 14 massive columns inside the cathedral are octagonal. The same coincide with the baptistery in many churches.

More information: Catedral de Mallorca

Groundhog Day is a popular tradition celebrated in Canada and the United States on February 2. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will retreat to its den and winter will persist for six more weeks, and if it does not see its shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early. While the tradition remains popular in modern times, studies have found no consistent correlation between a groundhog seeing its shadow or not and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.

The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger is the forecasting animal. This appears to be an enhanced version of the lore that clear weather on the Christian Holy Day of Candlemas forebodes a prolonged winter.

The Groundhog Day ceremony held at Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania, centering around a semi-mythical groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, has become the most attended.

Grundsow Lodges in Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the southeastern part of the state celebrate them as well. Other cities in the United States and Canada have also adopted the event. The observance of Groundhog Day in the United States first occurred in German communities in Pennsylvania, according to known records.

Punxsutawney Phil

The earliest mention of Groundhog Day is an entry on February 2, 1840, in the diary of James L. Morris of Morgantown, in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, according to the book on the subject by Don Yoder. This was a Welsh enclave but the diarist was commenting on his neighbors who were of German stock.

The first reported news of a Groundhog Day observance was arguably made by the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in 1886: up to the time of going to press, the beast has not seen its shadow. However, it was not until the following year in 1887 that the first Groundhog Day considered official was commemorated here, with a group making a trip to the Gobbler's Knob part of town to consult the groundhog. People have gathered annually at the spot for the event ever since.

More information: The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club

Clymer Freas (1867–1942) who was city editor at the Punxsutawney Spirit is credited as the father who conceived the idea of Groundhog Day. It has also been suggested that Punxsutawney was where all the Groundhog Day events originated, from where it spread to other parts of the United States and Canada.

The Groundhog Day celebrations of the 1880s were carried out by the Punxsutawney Elks Lodge. The lodge members were the genesis of the Groundhog Club formed later, which continued the Groundhog Day tradition. But the lodge started out being interested in the groundhog as a game animal for food. It had started to serve groundhog at the lodge, and had been organizing a hunting party on a day each year in late summer.

The chronologies given are somewhat inconsistent in the literature. The first Groundhog Picnic was held in 1887 according to a book for popular reading by an academic, but given as post-circa-1889 by a local historian in a journal. The historian states that around 1889 the meat was served in the lodge's banquet, and the organized hunt started after that.

Celebrating Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney

Either way, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club was formed in 1899, and continued the hunt and Groundhog Feast, which took place annually in September.

The hunt portion of it became increasingly a ritualized formality, because the practical procurement of meat had to occur well ahead of time for marinating. A drink called the groundhog punch was also served. The flavor has been described as a cross between pork and chicken. The hunt and feast did not attract enough outside interest, and the practice discontinued.

The groundhog was not named Phil until 1961, possibly as an indirect reference to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds as large as 40,000 gather each year, nearly eight times the year-round population of the town. The average draw had been about 2,000 until the year after the movie screened in 1993, after which attendance rose to about 10,000.

The official Phil is pretended to be a supercentenarian, having been the same forecasting beast since 1887. In 2019, the 133rd year of the tradition, the groundhog was summoned to come out at 7:25 am on February 2, but did not see its shadow. Fans of Punxsutawney Phil awaited his arrival starting at 6:00 a.m., thanks to a live stream provided by Visit Pennsylvania. The live stream has been a tradition for the past several years, allowing more people than ever to watch the animal meteorologist.

More information: The Guardian

Blanca com un ciri, pura com un lliri,

la Verge divina al Temple Camina

duent en sos braços, com xaió de llet,

lo bon Jesuset.

Jacint Verdaguer

YMA SUMAC, THE VOICE OF THE SIX-AND-A-HALF OCTAVES

Yma Sumac

Today, the weather continues cold and The Grandma has decided to stay at home again. She is an old person and she must take care of her health. In the morning, a strong rain has surprised the city and its inhabitants and it has been a perfect moment for The Grandma to stay at her sofa and listen to classical music, one of her favourite hobbies.

The Grandma has chosen Yma Sumac, the Peruvian–American soprano, who was very popular some decades ago because she sang a range of over four and a half octaves, something really incredible. Sumac, whose name in Quechua, means How beautiful! is one of the most incredible an amazing voices of the last century.

After listening to Sumac, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 13).

More information: Vocabulary 13-Staying Healthy

Yma Sumac (September 10, 1923-November 1, 2008), was a Peruvian–American coloratura soprano. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous exponents of exotica music.

Sumac became an international success based on her extreme vocal range. She had six-and-a-half octaves according to some reports, but other reports and recordings document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career. A typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves.

Yma Sumac

In one live recording of Chuncho, she sings a range of over four and a half octaves, from B2 to G♯7. She was able to sing notes in the low baritone register as well as notes above the range of an ordinary soprano and notes in the whistle register. Both low and high extremes can be heard in the song Chuncho, The Forest Creatures (1953). She was also apparently able to sing in a remarkable double voice.

In 1954, classical composer Virgil Thomson described Sumac's voice as very low and warm, very high and birdlike, noting that her range is very close to five octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound. 

In 2012, audio recording restoration expert John H. Haley favorably compared Sumac's tone to opera singers Isabella Colbran, Maria Malibran, and Pauline Viardot. He described Sumac's voice as not having the bright penetrating peal of a true coloratura soprano, but having in its place an alluring sweet darkness, virtually unique in our time.

More information: The Official Website of Yma Sumac

Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo on September 10, 1923, in Ichocán, a historically Indian village in Cajamarca, Peru. Her parents were Sixto Chávarri and Emilia del Castillo. Her father was born in Cajamarca and her mother was born in Pallasca. Stories published in the 1950s claimed that she was an Incan princess, directly descended from Atahualpa.

The government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor. She was the youngest of six children. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father a civic leader.

Yma Sumac

Chávarri adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack, also spelled Ymma Sumack and Ima Sumack, before she left South America for the United States. The stage name was based on her mother's name, which was derived from ima shumaq, Quechua for how beautiful!, although in interviews she claimed it meant beautiful flower or beautiful girl.

Sumac first appeared on radio in 1942. She recorded at least 18 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon label featured composer Moisés Vivanco's troupe Compañía Peruana de Arte, of 16 Indian dancers, singers, and musicians.

She was signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac. Her first album, Voice of the Xtabay, launched a period of fame that included performances at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall.

More information: UPI

In 1950 she made her first tour to Europe and Africa, and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Royal Festival Hall before the Queen. She presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris. A second tour took her to the Far East: Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, the Philippines, and Australia. Her fame in countries like Greece, Israel and Russia made her change her two-week stay to six months.

During the 1950s, she produced a series of lounge music recordings featuring Hollywood-style versions of Incan and South American folk songs, working with Les Baxter and Billy May. The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks, and stage personality made her a hit with American audiences.

Yma Sumac

During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas (1954) with Charlton Heston and Robert Young and Omar Khayyam (1957).

She became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she performed Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song Vírgenes del Sol on her album Fuego del Ande.

In 1987, she recorded I Wonder from the Disney film Sleeping Beauty for Stay Awake and  in 1989, she sang again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the BRT's Gala van de Gouden Bertjes New Year's Eve TV special in Brussels as well as the Etoile Palace program in Paris. She also gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San Francisco and Hollywood as well as two more in Montreal, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden del Sol award by Peruvian President and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 85, at an assisted living home in Los Angeles. She was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in the Sanctuary of Memories section.

More information: The New York Times

My music is different. 

It springs from my Incan heritage, 

which we proudly preserve in Peru. 

It is the music of the mountains.

Yma Sumac