Since my hobbies include Getting Nothing Done and Not Finishing What I’ve Already Started I’ve now spent several hours successfully avoiding the tasks I set out to fulfill today. The opened Kalevalas and dictionaries lie ignored on the table as I type away about trivialities and aimlessly browse the internet. The untouched coffee I brewed for breakfast three hours ago now emanates a burnt and unpleasant odour in the kitchen. This clearly is the preparatory phase of Actually Doing Something. It might or might not lead to concrete results. I might start translating the new batch of text for the Amorphis project I received earlier this week , or I might get distracted and go and brush my teeth instead. I might do both. This is called multitasking. A very good example of my multitasking abilities was when yesterday evening I caught myself gradually washing the dishes, hanging the laundry out to dry, shaving and watching “Friends” on TV, basically all at the same time. This modus operandi of mine occasionally causes irritation to arise within the otherwise lovely bosom of The Loved One. I understand her reaction up to a point, although I like to emphasise the fact that even though nothing seemingly gets done, every respective project will eventually reach its’ natural conclusion. As sure as the seasons change, and sometimes over as long a timespan, but conclude they will anyway.



THIS WEEKS’ GLIMPSE INTO VISUAL ARTISTRY:
The most fitting way to start presenting paintings and painters I like would be with Elihu Vedder since his mural called “Government” from the wall of Library Of Congress Washington D.C. is also the pompously chosen emblem of this here blog. I see no reason to cut and paste any information about his works and/or life because this here wikipedia link neatly sums up all the facts one probably needs to know. He was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite movement I have always found very fascinating. His works are delightful and beautiful to look at. Here’s a gallery of his paintings at ArtMagick, a place of infinite visual delights. This is the text on their front page and very apt an description it is too: “ArtMagick is a virtual gallery dedicated to the continual quest of seeking out obscure 19th century artists and long-forgotten paintings showing a "magic world of romance and pictured poetry". The majority of the content in the archive covers the Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist movements.“

Pictured left we see Elihu himself, assumingly lost in longing thoughts of the time before Raphael took over the world of visual arts, looking very solemn in his cassock and the unreal moustache that must have added a fair amount of challenge to eating soup. I dare not even think about the restrictions his facial hair probably presented to the act of kissing the wife.

THIS WEEKS ALBUM OF CHOICE:
“Passion” by Peter Gabriel. Almost entirely instrumental soundtrack to the film “The Last Temptation of Christ” and my number one choice for music to play in the background while I’m concentrating on other things. I’ve also used this as a soundtrack for napping, for drifting in and out of sleep and receiving irrational visions while doing so. This enhances the experience, as well as being beautiful, calming down and soothing music for all occasions. I also liked the film quite a lot.

On an not-totally-unrelated note, here’s Peter Gabriel performing live the song called “Darkness” from his 2002-released “Up”-album. Looks and sounds very impressing and enchanting.



THIS WEEKS’ BOTTLES OF CHOICE:
Café Culture Pinotage, red wine from South Africa. First impressions first: oh my god this tastes horrible. I had decanted the wine and let it catch its’ breath a bit before pouring it in the glass. There was no buoquet to speak of and certainly none of the loudly advertised coffee aromas. The taste was all over the place and oppressingly heavy, rolling around in the mouth killing everything in its’ way. It settled down a little when paired with spicy fajitas but still its’ level of full-bodiedness was very near to crushing annihilation. This is not how I like my red wine and I swore never to have another glass of this exotic magma again. A few hours later I had another glass of the exotic magma and found it having developed some nuances missing during the first encounter. Now the bouquet had a strong sense of mocha and the taste had settled down a lot, almost to the point of being fit for drinking. The coffee flavour was beguiling and I quite enjoyed the second glass. This was an experience probably worth experiencing but will not be re-experienced. I’ll stick to lighter old world red wines for a while now.

Long Nose Gewürztraminer, white wine from South Africa. First impressions first: there’s an elephant pictured on the label but oh my god this tastes horrible. Clearly my tastebuds are not comfortably compatible with South African wines. I was looking forward to checking out this unpronounceable grape and had prepared a spicy asian wok to go with it. The disappointment was grand. The bouquet was an onslaught of candy-like, syrupy dishwater (probably the “rose petals” the blurb on the label advertised) and the actual taste was like old socks boiled in watered-down perfume with some extra mustiness thrown in. Although I’m not familiar, as such, with the taste of scented boiling water of old socks, I can only imagine it would taste something like this.

It’s amazing how much this was not a good wine at all in my opinion. The Loved One shared my opinion on this so into the kitchen sink went the remaining contents of our glasses once the judgement was sealed. The bottle was re-screwcapped and stealthily placed outside our front door on the street. This might sound like a curious activity at first, but considering the nature of the district we live in and our past experiences with bottle-placing it makes more sense. I checked 15 minutes later and, to my surprise, found the bottle still there, intact, but, it being Friday evening and all, by the time of a recheck an hour later the Long Nose was duly gone and presumably also consumed too, in several long swigs of the kind that pays not much attention to perfumed bouquets or the amount of rose petalness of the beverage in question.

Schloss Schönborn Riesling Trocken, white wine from Germany. After all the tumult and mayhem of the South African wines this failed to make much of an impression, being probably way too subtle and sophisticated to pull the strings that pull out the loudest responses. I need to give dry German Rieslings a fairer chance once I’m in a more responsive mood. This one left the impression of being a subdued and unremarkable wine, with a high level of acidity and not much other qualities. I still prefer well-balanced and harmonious wines like this to the kind of wham-bam one trick ponies like the ones mentioned above.