The Orchard is a Tea Garden in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire. It is a place that looks frozen in time.
In 1868, it became a Tea Garden purely by chance. A group of Cambridge students asked Mrs Stevenson of Orchard House if she would serve them tea beneath the blossoming fruit trees rather than, as was usual, on the front lawn of the House. They were unaware that, on that
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spring morning in 1897, they had started a great Cambridge tradition. The Orchard soon became a popular ‘up-river resort’.
The owners started to take lodgers and one particular lodger was Rupert Brooke who brought his circle of friends later dubbed by Virginia Woolf as ‘Neo-Pagans’.
In March 1915, he embarked on a troop-ship bound for Gallipoli. Tragically, he was never to return. He became very ill on board, and on 23rd April 1915, aged 27, he died from blood poisoning.
The Grantchester group:
E.M. Forster, Rupert Brooke, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, Augustus John, Maynard Keynes, and Virginia Woolf ( from left to right).
We visited the Orchid from time to time.
In the summer before I our marriage, I used to bring my wife here.
I brought my daughter who is 16 now and wants to one day read English at Cambridge here.
I wanted to give her a sense of History. Who knows perhaps one day they’ll have her picture among these pe
Sima Bina is one of the most prominent Iranian folk singers.
She started learning music under the direction of her father Ahmed Bina (poet/classical musician). She studied Arts at Tehran University.
Other than her gift of music, Sima Bina’s major contribution has been the research into folk music of Iran. She has brought her work to an International audience around the globe.
This is my last Swiss blog. I’ll be back in UK on Monday. It has been a glorious 9 month here. Like an isolated Darwinian evolutionary continent, Switzerland with its unique political status has evolved a culture different from the rest of Western Europe, this is more visible when you visit the museums. There you are likely to find the concept of War something that is historical or happens to other people. You will find paintings, landscapes which are uniquely Swiss and you would not see around the world. Historical museums, and second-hand shops are full of luxury items and beautiful art Deco furniture and vintage designer clothing owned by generations of wealthy Swiss. The Art and sculpture is rich with detail, extravagance and sometimes a distinct humour.
Anyway, this was my last weekend in this beautiful country so I decided to make the most of it and visit Bern. When I went to the Zurich station I was surprised to find a Thai Festival in action. I went to listen to the chanting of the monks and looked around the food and furniture stands and decided to go and get my train. Bern is a city with so much to offer.
Apart from the medieval oddities such as a sculpture of an Ogre eating babies, or the impressive old clock tower, the city is picturesque and the museums are rich with unusual artefacts. Bern is a very happy city. You see people of all ages having romantic interaction, you see little kids running around the water works in a large square and getting soaked laughing and having fun.
There was an exhibition of hoof cleaning cows and horses. The poor cow was mowing like mad when it was tied down and her hooves were being grind down.
Going back to the subject of Swiss differences, Ferdinand Hodler symbolist paintings are distinctly Swiss.
After the Art visits, the historical museum was also interesting. I came across many unexpected Iranian items such as Astronomy an Astrology instruments, lacquered pen holders, Sufi order items such as the Sufi master’s hat and axe etc. There was also a collection of Qajar Art including 18th century pen holders and recreation of women’s room inside a Qajari house.
The most impressive which in my opinion is a unique masterpiece was the Joseph Reinhart’s paintings of Swiss costumes 787 to 1797 as well as a series of water colours called the dance of death.
The final visit was to Einstein museum where I discovered a side of Albert that I didn’t know about. Albert was one hell of a lover boy and his poor wife who was also educated and had ambitions of an academic life settled for being a house wife and had to put up with her husband’s infidelity. Einstein was wrongly associated with the creation of the Atomic bomb by the Time magazine, but he tried to rectify that. He did his best to curb its use and make people think about the Arm’s race and the catastrophic outcome. He was under surveillance during the McCarthy years and was almost expelled from U.S. He died after a speech about nuclear disarmament and proposing the idea of a world Government in 1955.
I had a great lunch and a glass of Swiss white beer and slept like a baby on the train.
When I came back to Zurich I finished off a very distinct and fantastic glass of Honey wine. I bought a bottle after doing having a wine tasting session and chose a bottle that was not sweet but had a lot of character. The alcohol intake was the exception. I was simply making the most of my Swiss experience and had to finish my wine bottle as my luggage could go over the weight limit. Well at least it is a good excuse to celebrate a long journey!
These doors are liked by most Tourists who visit Tunisia. They are a joy for anyone who likes colours. I think Abstract Expressionists would have had a field day with these!
I chose the colours of the Iranian flag for this work. I felt like my country through many influences was sacrificed and Iranian people have paid a heavy price for it.
Another from my DaGod Series. This is a protest against vulgarity of pathetic ideas that to me are worst than profanity being uttered in the name of religion.
I invented DaGod as a derivative of DaDa style. Becomig tired of many self imposed orientalists style of Iranian Art that often have an outward look towards the West, I adapted DaDa for the modern day as a protest against the harm done by fundementalist religions. DaDa itself was an anti Art movement against War.
Unlike other Art, and similar to DaDa, DaGod often carries a lot of humour. It is meant to be unasumming, and certainly not pretentious, to the point that I don’t even spell check my presentations of it!
It is actually for communities such as ours who have been bitten by the affliction of religious fundementalism or at least con Artists corrupting the pillars of our society.
I would welcome other Artists adopting the same style. I would welcome (Iranian or not) Artists to drop the mentality of putting themselves on a top shelf like a trophy and come down to Earth, be less serious and use fun and humour to convey their Art to their own community.
Googoosh is the most famous Iranian singer/actor. She started as a child actress and soon became nation’s sweet heart (in Iran).
She reached her height of fame in 1970s and had become well known outside Iran in Middle East and central Asia.
After the 1979 revolution, she remained in Iran till 2000 and like an urban legend people wondered about her life away from the limelight.
Stunningly beautiful, with a velvety voice and superbly talented in her stage presence she has remained popular with many generations of Iranians. Part of her popularity is down to the fact that she epitomizes the modern Iranian woman, i.e. some one who is beautiful, intelligent, talented and seductive.
politically, she has been a supporter of the Iranian Human rights movement, accusing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of stealing the election and supporting the protesters who have been jailed or killed.
Her earlier life was typical of a pop icon i.e. she had many relationships, marriage and divorces with famous actors, record producers and film directors.
This particular video also features the renowned dancer Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam who is an Iranian modern dancer based in Paris.
From my DaGod school. Ein is an Arabic letter of alphabet that has entered into Persian. Noon is a letter which also means bread. Einan which is the combination of these two letters means identical. Symbolically an Arab letter superseding Noon shows that Arabic ideology is overriding basic necessities of life i.e. bread. It is a bankrupt ideology and culture where one sacrifices basic human needs for the sake of redundant ideology.
