Mark Shepheard

'Cézanne to Giacometti' at the NGA, Canberra. Bit of a curate's egg, as exhibitions go, but I did like this 'Still Life with a Pipe' by Braque.

Will someone help the real Slim Shady to please stand up, please stand up, plea... Ooh me knees..

The Swafford bio? I'm reading that at the moment, too. Good book but bonkers indexing. Reminds me somewhat of a music store that used to shelve its operas by title rather than composer. "Today I rather fancy an opera beginning with T"

Lisbet's pilates game is A+

Manuel I of Portugal sends Leo X a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and somewhat later Vasari starts work on his 'Lives of the most eminent Therapods, Sauropods and Ornithischia'

Called it...

"Chopin himself, when the article - or something like it - was brought to his attention, hardly knew what to make of it. In a letter to Titus Woyciechowski from Paris, dated December 12, 1831, he wrote: 'I recieved a few days ago a ten-page review froma German in Kassel who is full of enthusiasm for them (the variations). After a long-winded preface he proceeds to analyse them bar by bar, explaining that they are not variations but rather a fantastic tableau. In the second variation he says that Don Giovanni runs around with Leporello; in the third he kisses Zerlina, while Masetto's rage is pictured in the left hand - and in the fifth bar of the Adagio he declared that Don Giovanni kisses Zerlina on the D flat. Plater asked me yesterday where her D flat was, etc.! I could die laughing at this German's imagination." Henry Pleasants, The Musical World of Robert Schumann, London: Gollantz, 1965, pp. 17-18

'Don Giovanni & Zerlina'. Engraving from Charles Heath, Beauties of the opera and ballet, London, 1845.

Chopin's private response in 1831 to Friedrich Wieck's gushing and OTT review of Chopin's "Variations on 'Là ci darem la mano', Op. 2.

Yes and his notices of publication in the London Evening Post make no mention of a commission, which would seem odd

That really seems like a misreading on the part of the V&A of 'Design'd & Engrav'd by Wm Hogarth, Publish'd according to Act of Parliament Sept. 30. 1747'. The 'Act' (Engravers' Copyright Act, 1735) misinterpreted as a 1747 Act commissioning the series? Weren't they published off his own bat?

I'd avoid any upper-storey windows at ANU once the Chancellor gets back

Reposting (slightly belatedly) this delightful cartoon for the 161st anniversary of Richard Strauss' birth on June 11 1864

Scott Morrison is getting Australia's highest honour despite a laundry list of scandals and embarrassments Media have been circulated a list of every Australian set to get a King’s Birthday honour. Scott Morrison — whose legacy includes robodebt, multiple ministries and habitual lying — is the latest polit...

He turned down offer of the Order of the Garter saying that 'unlike a garter, I don't hold a hose, mate'
www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/06/s...

Makes playing the difficult passages a bit easier apparently

‘The worst AI-generated artwork we’ve seen’: Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Facebook ad fail A ‘poorly considered’ use of AI has resulted in a perplexing number of fingers – and a large amount of mockery

There was this humdinger from the Queensland SO last year

www.theguardian.com/culture/2024...

More from Zeghere van Male's 1542 #Chansonnier:
Some marginal #bagpipers and a #fiddler
Ca Ms 125-128

#bagpipe #bagpiper #bagpipes #fiddle #marginaliamonday #earlymusic #earlymodern #marginalia #16thCentury #sheetmusic

(I can't help but wonder whether, now he's fortuitously stepping down as Secretary to the Dept of PM&C, Glynn Davis will be parachuted in at some point)

$3 million in consultancy fees at 'Their ANU', misleading the senate and potentially manufacturing a financial crisis that doesn't exist. This week's Saturday Paper.

Pope Leo XIV: What is behind the name Robert Prevost has chosen? Due to a longstanding tradition, newly-elected popes are asked to change their names.

Could it be "God has given us the papacy; let us enjoy it"? Asking on behalf of Leo X

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Your Pope name is the last thing you ate and number of letters in your first name:

Martini IV

(And in choosing drink rather than food I inadvertently start a schism...)

(Cartoon: Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini / Tapestry: Palazzi Apostolici Vaticani)

Fabio Cristofani, 'Maffeo Barberini elected Pope'. Tempera on cardboard, 318 x 505 cm.

'The election of Maffeo Barberini as Pope Urban VIII in 1623': Fabio Cristofani's cartoon and Maria Maddalena della Riviera's tapestry from the 'Life of Urban VIII' series of tapestries made in the Barberini workshop in 1667.

(And I inadvertently wore blue, which probably gave quite the wrong impression)

First time voting in Australia, so I thought I'd do it in style at Old Parliament House

During his many years at the Cappella Giulia at St. Peter's Basilica (1551-55 and 1571-94), Palestrina would have participated in eight papal funerals. Four of these took place in the seventeen months between August 1590 and December 1591

Reminds me of this gem

Yes it would be amazing to hear it.

Extraordinary glass-decorated virginal from early 17th-century Austria or southern Germany. V&A, London.

London has been glorious these past two days. Spring well and truly sprung 🌱

The saving grace of the seemingly eternal return flight to Australia is the gin bar in the Qantas lounge 🍸✈️ 🦘

Extraordinarily, that set seems to be selling on Amazon UK at about £120-130 (Aus$240-260) but is selling on Amazon Australia (where it's in stock locally and in theory is an Australian product/label) at just over $400!! I assume it's produced in Europe and then shipped back to Aus as an import. 😵‍💫