London Interim 2012

Mary wrote to say that Fifi l’Amour was terminally ill. She had sung at our wedding in Amsterdam. I informed Jim who lives directly above her, and a few days later he wrote back to say that she had passed. This was Tuesday the 17th of July. Not only was Fifi marvellously talented and a great performer, but she was also a lovely unforgettable spirit and much fun.

For the rest, things continue to be busy. Peter took us one day to the Hurlingham Club where we walked the spectacular grounds and had lunch. We have been ourselves to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, to the film Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (which was delightful), to Reen Pilkington’s Retrospective: “A Mind’s Eye” at Roots and Shoots (where we saw Janet, Judith and Annie as well as Rix), to the photographic exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery, to a stunning performance of Play Without Words at Sadler’s Wells (with Esme; the production based on the film The Servant), to Caroline’s birthday party in Tooting Bec (with a Punch and Judy performance), to the Meridien Piccadilly for negronis, to the Gallery Mess for margaritas, to the Royal Exchange with Darby and Stephen again for margaritas, and to the Russian Big Band performance in Trafalgar Square (after which we went into the National Gallery). On TV, we have seen a documentary on Stonehenge,  “The Golden Age of Liners” and David Mallone’s “Heart and Mind: What Makes Us Human?” I finished the writing of my chapter on ‘Magic, Astrology and Alchemy’; also my AAR talk on the Amsterdam Coffeeshops. Additionally, I finished reading Alan Bennett’s enjoyable The Uncommon Reader.

I treasured my first one-to-one with Chloe. We had lunch together at the Providores on the Marylebone High Street. A few days later, Woody came over for dinner. Both are looking fabulous and appear happy in general. Chloe has graduated from Dartington and wants to travel now. Woody needs to re-sit his maths exam. Both are joys.

Marie Laure and Meg arrived on Tuesday the 24th. That evening, on Mary’s recommendation, we went for a late dinner at Ledbury’s Restaurant – a sumptuous if not also pricey experience. And yesterday, the four of us went to the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace for the showing of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Anatomical Drawings. Later we went to the Physic Garden. I overcooked the quiche that evening by having the oven improperly set, but the margaritas turned out to be OK. Warren has come today with the post from Amsterdam. I sent him, Marie and Meg to the Saatchi and then met them for lunch at Fratelli’s. While we were eating, Richard noticed that the entire staff was leaving at one point, and the deli café was closing. I asked, and we then went behind to King’s Road to see the Olympic torch being carried. It was moving. Tonight, Richard and I go to the Barbican for Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony.

And all in all, one way or another – shamancially or otherwise, we have managed to celebrate the Ides of July, the two Lucaria, the Neptunalia and the Furrinalia. It’s been full and lovely, and tomorrow the Olympics begin. And perhaps the greatest gift of all currently is that the perpetual rains ended about five days ago, and we have been enjoying glorious summer weather since then – hot and blue skies during the day; balmy lovely evenings following the sunset.

Post scriptum

The concert this evening at the Barbican was sheer magic: the London Symphony Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Simon Rattle conducting. The first half was Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances – a favourite piece since my college days in San Francisco, and the second half was Wynton Marsalis’ Swing Symphony (Symphony No. 3) which was a sheer delight. Such beauties strike all the more profoundly in contrast to such realisations recently gained through Bill McKibben’s Rolling Stone article (24.7.12), “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/24-2). He says, “Given this hard math, we need to view the fossil-fuel industry in a new light. It has become a rogue industry, reckless like no other force on Earth. It is Public Enemy Number One to the survival of our planetary civilization.” And basically he outlines the hopelessness of the situation given the lack and inability of political will to avoid the inevitable. And this morning on Radio Four, some ‘expert’ was praising the safety and reliability of fracking and exalting over the available resources that this technique alone will now be bringing. Global warming is, of course, only one of countless catastrophes and horrors before us, and yet, at the same time, we are capable of incredible technical achievements (e.g., the ‘proof’ of the Higgs boson) and the creation of artistic beauty that conjures a completely different world. The human dilemma is an extreme schizoid bafflement.