Blogging

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Blogging! It’s fun! It’s rewarding! It feels virtuous! And the blogs I like are pleasant and useful. Those that scream hate and venom I pass by feeling sorry for the twisted denizens who inhabit such ravings. Blogging leads to other thoughts as well as other blogs. (Anne has just pointed out that I didn't have a bloglist so we've now added one, you can use it to go to the blogs mentioned here or earlier.)

It assists conversations. A few days ago I blogged about Argentina. Rory has visited. He told of a Buenos Aires night club scene where a woman dressed in a white dress came out, and with the spotlight only on her sang ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’. Apparently, there was hardly a dry eye in the house. We both agreed that Madonna’s performance in the film of that name was superb. I must confess it is the only thing of hers I’ve seen. Audrey Hepburn was more my style. But Madonna’s performance in this instance was striking

On 20 May I mentioned on my blog another blog, peterspilgrimage. His posting about the island of Chios invoked memories of my studies into ancient Greece. In the name of democracy Athens transformed islands into client vassals. Peter not only explained the history of the island he’s taken magnificent photographs. An excellent conducted tour. Thanks Pam for drawing my attention to this blog.

But today when I went to check what Peter had written about Chios I found he’d been to the National Archaeological Museum at Athens. I’ve been there twice. As well I studied Greek Art, History and Literature at Canterbury University. (See my blog 30 March 2009).  Peter’s photos took me down memory lane. That magnificent bronze statue of Zeus, weight supported only by the ball of the foot. Those carved gravestones (stele, the correct term), well over 2,000 years old, human grief down the centuries. Painted vases. (I remember that octopus one). And all that gold from Mycaenae. Above all, the golden death mask from that hoard. Lucky man. Still I’ve seen them.

Another blog I enjoy is Mary McCallum’s. Her latest piece on crime writing is a gem. Everything a blog should be. I visit Beattie’s Book Blog regularly. He’s lifted Mary’s piece as his introduction to today’s Another I visit is Robert Reich (not a blog though), American economist whose latest piece is about Obama’s reaction to the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. “Respectful disagreement is virtuous in a democratic society, but so is appropriate indignation.” I also check on Anne, my wife’s food blog, Something Else to Eat, to see what I’ve been eating.

Similar to my pleasure in the blog is my daily reading of the weather statistics in the Dominion Post. Mid-May, the sunshine was ahead of the monthly average, rainfall well-down. The last several days have reversed that trend. For the next four days the forecast is more rain. It looks very likely the sunshine hours will be well-short for the full month. Rainfall is already well over. The wide gap of the earlier months of 2010 is beginning to close.