Busking in the Metro The metro always fascinated me. That great labryrinth of tunnels that transported the population of Paris here and there to their various destinations. Standing on the platform there would be a momentary silence where the tunnel would reveal its empty darkness. Then in the distance a rumbling sound could be heard which became louder and louder and suddenly like an angry serpent, the train would hurtle its way into the platform, its beaming lights shining ferociously, the sound of the wheels on the tracks and the rumbling of the carriages, followed by the screeching of the brakes as it slowly ground to a halt. The eerie noise of the claxon as the carriages are ready to open. With one flick of the handle the doors pull aside and out spewed the crowds onto the platform while those waiting to get on waiting patiently until the last person had alighted. There were any amount of metro stations that a busker could perform in. Yet they varied in their capacity to...
Posts
Paris During the 70’s when I was at college, my flatmate had introduced her to me and we realised almost from the beginning that we had something special in common, a love of singing together. Somehow there was a special magic as we weaved our music and songs that we had written separately, into a harmony that was reflected not only in our voices, but a common sound that the harmonies that our guitar playing provided, and in turn producing a musical foil to each other. Benedicte had grown up in a rural area just south of Paris and had come to Britain to improve her English by working as an au pair. Our relationship was one of friendship and mutual respect. Our music was the bond that would tie us together over the years that followed. That summer in 1975 was my first time in Paris. I had a couple of months off my university studies during the summer vacation and decided, on a whim, to try my hand at busking in the Paris metro. I took the boat train ...
Delos Legend has it that Apollo, the god of the sun was born here. The fact that the island is devoid of shade given its lack of high mountains and trees, therefore bathing its terrain in complete sunlight, gives some validity to that claim. Throughout ancient times Delos became a religious, cultural and commercial centre. Now only the ruined buildings and temples spread over the landscape are all that remain remain. The area is littered with fallen columns, sections of mosaics which once formed the houses of the rich. We visited a number of these ruined buildings. One of was known as the House of Dionysos which depicts a mosaic of the god Dionysos riding on a tiger. She was the god of wine and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysos was the main religious focus for its consumption. We also came upon the House of Cleopatra, no not her more illustrious Egyptian namesake, but a rich noblewoman and her hu...
Naxos I want to continue my recollections of our first journey exploring the Greek islands just over two years ago. The first island we visited was the island of Naxos. I stood on the upper deck of the ferry at the stern and watched the port of Piraeus slip slowly into the horizon curiously observing the ship’s engine churning up the waters like an angry storm. I was captivated by the frothy, churning water, its sight and sound left behind in the wake of the ship. People were sitting out on the decks, soaking in the morning sunshine, drinking coffee, reading books, some huddled together in earnest conversations. The clusters of islands stood like sentinels on either side of our ferry. Their looming presence displaying a unique detail of peaks and craggy mountain tops. Every so often we would spy islands that were fully inhabited, the tiny white buildings in the distance like little specks dotted precariously around the coastline. Each island loomed up briefly before dis...