Arty Farty Friday ~ Émile-Antoine Bayard & Cosette

Born this day, in 1837: Émile-Antoine Bayard (November 2, 1837 – 6 December 1891). He was a French illustrator born in La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne. A student of Léon Cogniet, and is now best remembered for his illustration of Cosette from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. He died in Cairo. (Wikipedia).

Young Cosette sweeping: 1862 drawing for Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The illustration has been used in promotional art for various versions of the musical adaptation of the novel. Bayard drew many other scenes from the novel too - no doubt used as guides by the producers and directors of stage and film adaptations.

Bayard illustrated several other famous books, notably Around the Moon by Jules Verne (1870). See illustrations and information at The Public domain Review HERE. This was years before H.G. Wells brought science fiction to the masses in the 1890s, possibly these are some of the first sci-fi related illustrations ever.

There are other oddities among his many illustrations, for instance a duel between two women, and a sequel - their reconciliation! (Click on illustrations for clearer views.)

Astrologically, Émile-Antoine Bayard had Sun in Scorpio, his natal chart is at Astrotheme HERE. His Scorpio Sun is at 10 degrees and in harmonious trine with Uranus at 4 degrees of Pisces, close to midheaven. If time of birth at Astrotheme is near correct, Cancer was rising at 10 degrees - forming a Grand Trine (harmonious circuit)in the astrological Water element. I suspect this is the root source of the intuition and imagination used in his memorable illustrations, with Venus, planet of the arts in Sagittarius, ensuring that his work was widely published.

Arty Farty Friday~ Delacroix ~ Liberty Leading the People

Today, 26 April in 1798 French painter of the Romantic school, Eugène Delacroix was born. One of his best known paintings, now almost iconic having been used on French postage stamps and paper currency is Liberty Leading the People. Romantic style painters focus on emotionality - the full spectrum of human emotion. Look at any of Delacroix's paintings and at the heart of it will be depiction of an emotion - anger, courage, despair, love, fear.......

Liberty Leading the People was painted a few months after the Paris uprising of July 27 - 29 1830, that same uprising described in Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables and its various adaptations to stage and film. The figure of a youth, to the right of Lady Liberty, is said to have been inspiration for the character of Gavroche in Victor Hugo's famous novel.

The 1830 rebellion and political upheaval overthrew reigning monarch, Charles X (brother of the beheaded Louis XVI) who had been planning to reinstate systems of pre-Revolutionary France. After pledging one billion francs to the aristocracy in reparations for property lost during the Revolution, he abolished free press and the legislature, and curtailed suffrage rights.




There's symbolism in the painting - in the detail as well as in the general feel of it. In this uprising the middle class - the bourgeoisie - joined with the working classes to oppose the ruling aristocracy. The two figures on the left of the painting symbolise this, one wearing a top hat, vest and jacket, the other in working gear of a labourer.

The dead man on the left in the painting's foreground is wearing a nightshirt - indicating he had been dragged from his bed by royalist soldiers - a reference to the despised practice of royal troops who spread terror by murdering suspected revolutionary sympathizers in their beds and then dragging the bodies into the streets as a warning. The dead man on the right appears to be a royalist soldier.

Dominating figure is Liberty, the personification of freedom, aka Marianne in France. She rushes forward from a pile of bodies and debris of the barricades, bare-footed and bare-breasted, carrying the Tricolore and a musket. She wears a Phrygian cap, widely recognized symbol of liberty during the original French Revolution.


The painting was first exhibited in 1831 but was not met with plaudits. Critics disliked the way Delacroix had depicted Liberty who, they said looked like a working class woman, a fishwife, or perhaps even a harlot. But this was Liberty actually "on the job" and not the "at ease" version represented by the Statue of Liberty presented by the people of France to the USA in 1886. Naturally enough, in 1831 the potential for such dramatic proletarian power must have seemed highly dangerous, so dangerous in fact that Delacroix's masterpiece was not put on view to the public until 1855. Photo (right) is included to give some idea of the size of the painting.

Delacroix died in 1863, aged 65.

THOUGHTS ON CRIME and MORALITY

Three dramas have recently been part of our entertainment diet (one still at mid-meal). They have very different backgrounds but loosely similar themes: morality and crime, but they could hardly be called Morality Plays in the old sense: Les Misérables (book, film, musical); Breaking Bad (TV series); and Scandal (film about the real-life Profumo Affair in Britian in the 1960s.)

The stories prompt one to question commonly held rigid opinions of what is right and what is wrong. Is the law always right? Can there be moral justification for committing crime? Are crime and morality related, is crime always a moral indicator? In two of the dramas there are activities which, though against laws in place at the time, stemmed from valid personal reasons, considered by the law-breaker extreme enough to warrant his actions.

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.
― Fyodor Dostoevsky

Les Misérables

In Les Misérables the main character, Jean Valjean, stole a loaf of bread because his sister's children were starving. For this crime he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. 14 extra years and hard labour were added to his sentence because of his attempts to escape. He had broken the law, but wasn't it the moral responsibility of the governing body of France to make certain its citizens were not starving? Who would not steal bread to feed starving children? That's just the beginning. When his sentence is over he's put on probation, he has become hardened and inhumane, which is understandable. At the first opportunity he steals silver from a priest, who then forgives him, prevents his re-arrest and lifetime imprisonment, but tells him that it is on condition that, from then on, he will live a good life. He does so, changing his name as well as his lifestyle. An "establishment" figure, police officer Javert, hounds Valjean with a burning determination, obsessed by a need to adhere rigidly to the letter of the law. Javert wasn't wrong - but he wasn't right either.

A criminal remains a criminal whether he uses a convict's suit or a monarch's crown.
― Victor Hugo

Breaking Bad

In Breaking Bad, an acclaimed TV series we're watching via DVD, a highly qualified chemistry teacher in New Mexico, Walter White, discovers that he has inoperable lung cancer. He's a mild-mannered, easy-going family man. He has a pregnant wife and a teenage son who suffers from cerebral palsy. The treatments Walter White needs are horrendously expensive, will not be covered by insurance. He turns down the offer of help from a former business partner. Instead, he uses his rare expertise to begin "cooking meth" (the drug methamphetamine) and selling it, in partnership with a younger guy who knows the business. The expensive chemo therapies, paid for by ill-gotten gains from selling his high quality meth, do cause an improvement in his condition. Improved health means he's able to withstand an operation, set to cost some $200,000.....even more meth cooking and selling is needed.

Over time Walter White becomes hardened psychologically, he meets and does business with criminals and drug lords, as well as dealing with dark thoughts of his own early demise. He is closely involved in murders, multiple deaths, and other crimes directly and indirectly, as well as ensuring that more young lives are destroyed via drug use. We are only at Season 3 (of 5) so I cannot say how it will unfold, but Walter is gradually being turned to stone, morally, mentally and emotionally by results of his crimes.

When a man, before innocent, commits crime, he passes, by a sudden transition, into a new world. The significance of all objects around him is changed; the laws of association in his own mind are changed; a viper is born in his breast which stings and goads him. Sounds that he never heard before ring in his ears; a violated conscience turns avenger and scourger;--the foe is within him. Were it merely an external enemy, assaulting the criminal from without, perhaps he might be fled from, resisted, bribed, or would at last remit his inflictions through very weariness of tormenting. But not so with the consciousness of wrong.... It will not sleep, nor tire, nor relent.
HORACE MANN, Thoughts

Breaking Bad, though its crimes are on a far more serious level from those in Les Misérables raises similar questions. If you were diagnosed with inoperable cancer with, at most, months to live, no means to pay for expensive treatment, and had the skill to make meth (or carry out some other illegal activity), so that your family would not be left with huge medical bills, with likely loss of their home. Would you forgo treatment and face certain death within months, or use your skills, illegally, to make money enough to finance your treatment? There are other similarities to Les Miz too: Walter White's brother-in-law, Hank, is leader of a DEA (drug law enforcement) team pursuing some new mysterious meth-lord. So, Hank = Javert. Walter White takes the alias "Heisenberg" for his meth-dealing persona; Jean Valjean used "Monsieur Madeleine".

In Breaking Bad I see another immorality equal to, or worse than, that of Walter White - the lack of a proper, affordable health care system in the USA, such as is available in most other developed countries, where citizens would not face bankruptcy if catastrophic illness hit them. That is the single, over-riding, wrong which spawned though hardly justified, Walter Whites' huge crimes.

The more insidious kind of crime is writing the laws that make your crimes legal.
― Brandon A. Trean

Wrongs, crimes, immoralities are like trees and plants, they grow from a tiny seed, develop roots that spread, often in unexpected directions; stem and branches grow, bear poisoned fruit and they too, over time, spread beyond anything a person looking at that first tiny seed could have envisaged. In both Les Misérables and Breaking Bad "the seed" can be identified in societal wrongs: deliberate uncaring mis-management by government or ruling body.

Scandal
Circumstances of the third drama, the movie Scandal are somewhat different, and relate to a real-life slice of immorality - and vice rather than crime. It could stand as a morality play for politicians and powerful wealthy guys who like to prey on young women. The Profumo Affair from Britain's early 1960s, is storyline of the film. The film almost certainly skews and embroiders some facts for better dramatic effect. It can tell only basic facts we were allowed to know about the affair. There will be much more still hidden, and will remain so if certain powerful individuals have their way.

John Profumo, Britain's disgraced Minister for War was at the centre of this scandal, which had potential to bring the entire government down. Profumo was one of Dr. Stephen Ward's "clients". I see Ward as "the seed" in this story, for it was from his activities that all other actions grew. Oddly, some saw him as "fall guy". In acting as a high society procurer of young women for the Great and the Bad, Ward had no extenuating circumstance. He apparently did what he did just for the hell of it, and because he could. He wasn't in need of money, a successful osteopath with a client list filled with some of the wealthiest individuals in the UK.

Profumo, in betraying his wife (film star Valerie Hobson) and carrying on a affair with Christine Keeler, one of Ward's "young ladies", thought his powerful position made him invulnerable. There have been many men in similar situations since, there were many before, and will be many more in the future. Profumo, though, was particularly careless in that his chosen extra-marital lover, Christine Keeler was also extra marital lover of a Russian naval attaché, the pair were also introduced by Ward. Minister for War + Russian naval attaché : hot sex + cold war = alarm bells! The young women involved, Christine Keeler and of lesser importance Mandy Rice-Davies, were not forced into doing what they did. They were showgirls from poor backgrounds, willingly coerced, hankering after more bright lights and good times. They were teenagers - not an excuse, but a fact to be taken into consideration. There are no good guys or gals here, nor even any good intentions by bad guys. When eventually arrested Stephen Ward was accused of living off immoral earnings, he committed suicide rather than go to jail.
(Photograph: Ward and Keeler. Getty Images.)

The vices of the rich and great are mistaken for error; and those of the poor and lowly, for crimes.
~Lady Marguerite Blessington

Les Misérables - eventually!

At last we got to see Les Misérables, on Sunday afternoon. The movie had actually reached our local cinema (stands back in amazement) over a week ago. As our shared coughing virus has thankfully subsided to an occasional expanded "ahem" or two, we braved the outer world first time in what seemed like ages. There were only around 25 people at the afternoon showing, and three of 'em left around 20 minutes in and didn't return.

Neither the husband nor I have seen Les Miz the stage musical, I have seen DVD and tapes of the main parts of it, and we've both seen several variations of the straight film adaptation of the novel - over the years there have been many. I began reading Victor Hugo's 1,400 page novel (English translation) at New Year, my resolution is to read it all the way through. I've just finished Part One (covering the first 275 pages), and enjoying it, finding it so far an easy and comfortable read due in part, I guess, to Norman Denny's translation style.

My overall comment about this new film, as we left the cinema was: "I'm not sure whether I liked that or not....I'm glad to have seen it though. It wasn't bad, but there was something missing." Husband thought it was superbly made, with some great shots and angles, and some obvious difficulties which had to be overcome.

The film maker was able to show us scenes from strange angles and perspectives a stage presentation could never have approached. I enjoyed that part of the movie. There was an attempt at realism in the way the songs were sung live to camera, no lip-syncing or pre-recording, yet because of that I missed the grandeur of some of the show's famous "set piece" songs which seemed to be almost thrown away. That was a disappointment. I really didn't enjoy the "sung through" style: no straight dialogue at all. If the film maker had wanted to strive for realism it would have been better to make a straightforward, non-musical film of the novel - a better one than has ever yet been seen on screen, with all the new technological help, the best possible A-list actors in each key part, loyal to the descriptions in the novel, and who had no need to be able to carry a tune. Some of the musical's main themes could have been used in the background of certain scenes, as a nod to a relative.

Hugh Jackman wasn't my idea of Jean Valjean, far too good looking and he didn't age sufficiently during the movie; but he can sing a bit, which is obviously what got him the part. Russell Crowe looked more Jean Valjean-ish for me, but he can't sing - did his best with Javert though. Anne Hathaway as Fantine should've been blonde, much is made of her beautiful golden locks in the novel. Also, she should have sold her two front teeth according to Hugo, not two back teeth well out of camera's searching lens.

As it stands in this new film the best of the musical version is lost, and much nuance of the story itself is lost - in my opinion.

I guess one has to look on the four entities involved as completely separate and only loosely related: the novel, the film adaptation, the stage musical adaptation, and the film musical adaptation. There's something of value in each, and something lacking in each.

Every viewer or reader will identify some point of reference which, for them, is the key to the story. For some it might be the classic sin/mercy/suffering/redemption motif, closely linked to the teachings of the Christian church. For others "the terrible lot of a poor woman's life" motif, or the "love at first sight" motif, or the "ill-treated children" and "unfailing love of a father" motif, the "doggedly obsessed man of conscience, a policeman determined to catch a thief" motif or - and in my own case: the political theme: "downtrodden masses kept in poverty, suffering and need will at last rebel against the tyranny of the wealthy" motif.

Yes, my heart always beats a little faster when I hear:

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

I don't know how many of the 20 or so people in the cinema with us were weeping at any point during the movie. I wept more than once. Why? I knew the story, I knew the ending, there were no surprises. The music and lyrics, derided by several snobbish critics, do put a strong pull on the emotions, especially in tandem with the sufferings of those depicted in close detail on the big screen - their squalor and their pain, their striving to do the best they can in the face of it all, while constantly being kicked back.

Below: a favourite scene from the anniversary DVD when all the actors who have played Jean Valjean in countries around the world came together on stage for a Grand Finale. I love this - it encourages me think that because Victor Hugo's story has survived, still fresh, and loved by people all around the world, there is still hope for us all.

In the Wee Small Hours....

I wonder how 2013 is panning out already for others? I don't like it much so far! Husband has been laid low with a very nasty cough and cold for well over a week. I've slept on the couch in the living room for the past 4 or 5 nights to allow him the freedom to cough with required shrillness, get up, wander around, devoid of worries about disturbing his spouse. I've so far avoided the worst symptoms of whatever virussy affliction his is, though not for much longer - the tonsils are fighting a brave rearguard action, but............

Anyway, during my nights exiled to the couch I've been encouraging sleep by watching whatever movie I could find on TV until the eyes began to close automatically. There are some rather strange movies around in the dead of night! A couple of old black and white sci-fi offerings were good for a quiet laugh; then, another night brought a newer (2003) British-made movie, The Mother shown sometime between 1 and 3 am.

Oh my! I was to quickly realise why this film had been relegated to the early hours. Several scenes wouldn't have been out of place in a real porno movie. British film makers have certainly moved with the times, put the old "lay back and think of England" thing well and truly to rest.

The biggest shock was to see actress Anne Reid who I remembered last seeing in the iconic English soap opera Coronation Street, back in the late 1960s and 70s, playing the part of sensible northern gal, young mother of twins Valerie Barlow, who, after several years in the part met an untimely end, electrocuted while drying her hair with a faulty appliance. It was an unsettling leap from her portrayal of young Valerie Barlow to the 68 year old grandmother, May, who in early widowhood takes leave of her senses and sensibilities and.......well what ensues involves a young Daniel Craig playing a 30-ish Darren, carpenter and handyman (very handy, as it turned out), doing construction work on her son's swish London house.

In looking for a pic to include here I came across an article where Ms Reid, now 77, said she "wishes she had Been sexually wilder". Hmmm.....really? Now that is bravado - or would the correct term in this case be bravada?

Suffice to say that the characters and their doings in Coronation Street were always far more believable and true to life (as we knew it then) than I found the unrelievedly nasty characters and attitudes portrayed in The Mother: May's husband, son, daughter and their respective spouses. Surrounded by that lot there's little wonder May experienced a loopy turn or two: bewitched, bewildered and generally discombobulated.

Dune, showing the following night, even with its Kwisatz Haderach, Bene Gesserit, the spice Melange and giant worms proved far too tame to keep my eyes open longer than through the first hour. Last night it was an hour or so of The Day After Tomorrow, enough to give a gal nightmares - but I'd seen it before, and therefore immunised against after effects.

Meanwhile, during daylight hours, it has not been possible to go see Les Miserables at a movie theatre in a neighbouring town. I doubt we'll make it now, virussy affliction rules it seems. There'll be a DVD soon enough, 'til then I'll sink my head into the doorstop of the Les Miz book, it arrived yesterday. I read up to page 42, and to my surprise found it a pleasantly easygoing read.

Les Miserables - A Detail and A Resolve

We still haven't made it to the movies to see Les Miserables. Freezing winter weather and minor aches and pains, on the far edge of something flu-like dampened our enthusiasm for the 32 mile journey to the nearest cinema showing the film. We do intend making a try for an afternoon show this week though.

It's interesting, but unsurprising, to see how conflicting some reviews of the movie have been. Beloved 1,400-page novel condensed over the years, in several versions, to the movie screen; then adapted as a stage musical; then further modified as a movie musical.....Somebody, somewhere, isn't going to like what they've done to it, at any of the stages of the story's (d)evolution, but some will enthuse wildly. Each genre has a different perspective to offer, a different way of portraying the story's essence. A lot depends on how well the source material is known and understood by both those adapting it and those watching the adaptations.

To Scratch an itch at the weekend I fished out an old VHS tape of the 10 year anniversary concert version of Les Miz to watch and refresh my memory. A question kept presenting itself to my annoyingly logical mind, it was one I'd wondered about in the past when watching any of the the various non-musical film versions of Victor Hugo's famous novel. Jean Valjean (seen in the book illustration above) progresses from being a convict on parole, then stealing silver candlesticks, forgiven by their owner and being allowed to keep them; then, as if by magic - and with scant explanation other than the passing of time - he has become the owner of a factory employing many workers. In the past I've rationalised that he must have sold the silver candlesticks, invested the money somehow to increase its value, then had the good chance to come across a run-down business he could afford to buy and improve.

Should've read the book, you see! I will do so, soon as possible. In the meantime, a scoot around the net led me to the real answer which does appear in the novel, no doubt in great detail, in classic Hugo style. The answer? It was a matter of "black beads". Beads and bracelets made from, or imitating jet, the black mineral. I know a little about jet, a north of England coastal town I used to know well, Whitby, is famous for its jet and carved jet jewellery; my mother had a jet bracelet and a couple of carved pins, I recall.

Clip from Les Miserables, Book Fifth – The Descent, found HERE (I suspect it comes from one of the older translations of the novel because of the habit of using initials rather than full names. (M sur M = Montreuil-sur-Mer)

From time immemorial, M. sur M. had had for its special industry the imitation of English jet and the black glass trinkets of Germany. This industry had always vegetated, on account of the high price of the raw material, which reacted on the manufacture. At the moment when Fantine returned to M. sur M., an unheard-of transformation had taken place in the production of “black goods.” Towards the close of 1815 a man, a stranger, had established himself in the town, and had been inspired with the idea of substituting, in this manufacture, gum-lac for resin, and, for bracelets in particular, slides of sheet-iron simply laid together, for slides of soldered sheet-iron.This very small change had effected a revolution.This very small change had, in fact, prodigiously reduced the cost of the raw material, which had rendered it possible in the first place, to raise the price of manufacture, a benefit to the country; in the second place, to improve the workmanship, an advantage to the consumer; in the third place, to sell at a lower price, while trebling the profit, which was a benefit to the manufacturer.Thus three results ensued from one idea.
In less than three years the inventor of this process had become rich, which is good, and had made every one about him rich, which is better. He was a stranger in the Department. Of his origin, nothing was known; of the beginning of his career, very little. It was rumored that he had come to town with very little money, a few hundred francs at the most.

It was from this slender capital, enlisted in the service of an ingenious idea, developed by method and thought, that he had drawn his own fortune, and the fortune of the whole countryside.

Reading the book is an essential now! There must be many other tidbits of detail I've missed completely from non-musical movie versions. Finding the best version of the book, for me, will be quite a trick. Unabridged it has around 1,400 pages, depending on edition, and I balk at a 500-page novel! (Book illustration, left, by Lynd Ward).

The net to the rescue again. Reviewers and commenters mostly advise reading the unabridged version, or at least giving it a try initially; if really stumped by it there are abridged versions available too. Purists will insist on the unabridged edition, but there are considerations: the original was written for publication in episodes (as were most of Charles Dickens' novels) paid, I guess, by the length of each piece and number of episodes needed to conclude the tale. Hence it was in the author's best interest to wax into great detail about historical relevancies, and other matters which might assist the reader to fully appreciate the finer detail.
That was then though - before film, TV, internet and other modern distractions. In that long ago era reading a book, magazine or newspaper occupied a much bigger slice of the average person's day.

These days many of us are infected with internet-attention-disorder, expect easy-reading, quick hits. This post, for instance, is already longer than most blog readers would tolerate!

It'd do me no harm at all to re-educate myself in the gentle art of real reading.

In the case ofLes Miserables there's also the thorny issue of the most appropriate version of the novel's translation from French into English. Is it better to read one translated near Victor Hugo's own era, or a more modern translation? An older, literal translation, almost word for word French to English, doesn't sound like my cup of tea. There's a 1970s translation by Norman Denny (1901 - 1982) who was English, and whose work seems to be well thought of among commenters, that one sounds to be a likely bet. The most recent translator, an Australian: Julie Rose, could lean too far towards modern idiom to feel authentic .....anachronistic, I suppose is the term; though her version is likely to be an easier read, and well-received by the American market. She discusses her work in a piece here: What Julie Rose Adds to Victor Hugo.

From an interesting blog: The Art of Translation I found this comparison of the way three tranlators of a short piece of the novel approached it:

I'm in danger of becoming geeky here! Will go for Norman Denny's translation.

My New Year resolution for 2013: to read Les Miserables.

PS: An archived brief post about musical Les Miz with notes on composers' and Hugo's astrology is HERE: The Magic in Les Miz.

PPS: While watching the 10-year anniversary concert tape I noticed some lyrics which will appeal to the astrologically-inclined - verses of a song sung by Javert as he vows to track down Jean Valjean. I'm wondering how much of the song is poetic licence by the musical's composers, or whether this is a close adaptation/translation of Victor Hugo's own words? When I've kept my New Year's Resolution, then I'll know the answer!

Stars
In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night
Keeping watch in the night

You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same
And if you fall as Lucifer fell
You fall in flame!

Gary Morris ~ Les Miz ~ Leaf-peeping

Tonight we're going to the theater to see, and hear, Gary Morris. He's versatile - best known in some circles as a country music artist of the 1980s, and in others for his role as Jean Valjean in the Broadway production of Les Misérables. The full symphonic recording of Les Misérables is a platinum selling, Grammy Award-winning album and features Gary's now famous version of Bring Him Home. He has also appeared in a production of Puccini's opera La Boheme with another fellow Country/Pop singer Linda Ronstadt.

I wonder if he'll sing Bring Him Home tonight? Speaking of Les Miz, I mentioned it, along with some related astrology in an archived post. Here's an excerpt:

Victor Hugo's story of revolution and redemption in 19th century France is the core of the musical's success. His natal chart can be seen at Astrodatabank. He was born 26 February 1802. Sun, Mercury, Venus and Pluto all in Pisces, the Mutable Water sign, sign of the mystical, sensitive, compassionate dreamer.

The music for the stage show was written by Claude-Michel Schonberg (below, left) born 6 July 1944 in Vannes, France. He has Sun, Mercury, Venus & Saturn in sensitive, sentimental Cancer - Cardinal Water.

Author of the touching lyrics which bring Shonberg's beautiful music to life was Alain Boublil (below, right) born in Tunis, Tunisia, 5 March 1941. Sun, Mercury and Venus all in Pisces (similar to Victor Hugo's chart).



Lots of the astrological element of Water, Mutable and Cardinal, in those three charts! It's not at all surprising that the combination of story, music and lyrics, born of such an emotionally sensitive Watery genealogy, would have the power and the magic to open the flood-gates and touch millions of hearts. It happened!

Here's the most uplifting of all the great songs from Les Miz. Quite appropriate for our times too, as it happens. This encore is from the 10th aniversary show. (No Gary Morris in this one.)

Tomorrow we'll take off for a wee dander around somewhere or other, looking for any remaining fall colour and whatever else takes our fancy.

Consequence : BLOG ON HOLD..