THE AMERICA FUTURE; A HISTORY, BY SIMON SCHAMA

PLEASE GIVE ONE HOUR OF YOUR TIME

I KNOW ONE WHOLE HOUR IS A LOT

BUT, IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS

PLEASE WATCH IT

YOU ONLY HAVE FOUR DAYS LEFT

THEN THIS POST DISAPPEARS

THIS IS A FULL VERSION OF THE

TV PROGRAMME

THE AMERICA FUTURE; A HISTORY

BY SIMON SCHAMA

EPISODE 4,

‘’WHAT IS AN AMERICA??’’

 

AND IT IS VERY, VERY RELEVANT.

SIMON SCHAMA IS AN ACADEMIC HISTORIAN NOT A POLITICIAN

  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fbd0d

 

FROM THE BBC WEB SITE

While the 2008 presidential campaign is in full swing, Simon Schama travels through America to dig deep into the conflicts of its history to understand what is at stake right now.

Simon looks at the bitter conflict over immigration in American history. Who should be allowed to enter America and call themselves an American has always been one of the nation's most divisive issues, and it continues to be so at this election. He traces the roots of this conflict to the founding of America.

The early settlers were themselves immigrants, but they saw America as fundamentally a white and Protestant nation. Simon looks at the key events that challenged this view: the annexation of parts of Mexico in 1848 that made 100,000 non-whites American citizens, the immigration and subsequent expulsion of the Chinese in the late 19th century, and the massive immigration from Eastern Europe during the industrialisation of the 1920s. Each time there have been those who have insisted America must stay white if it's to stay true to itself, and each time they have been defeated by the sheer force of history.

John F Kennedy defined America as a Nation of Immigrants in 1964 and Simon argues that the candidacy of Barack Obama represents the final triumph of the vision of America as a multi-ethnic nation

 

 

Healthy mondays, Pumpkin Soup,

PUMPKIN SOUP

 

I don’t usually write about cooking or recipes, mostly because if I cook I tend to make it up as I go along and not worry too much about the amounts. With soup I just chuck every thing in a pot and cook it. Not very scientific maybe but it generally works. BUT………………my pumpkin soup turned out very well and I have never made pumpkin soup before. I did it this time to use up the pumpkin I took out of the Halloween pumpkin head.  So here it is…………………..

I whole pumpkin chopped up

About 5-6  carrots

About 3-4 sticks celery

Sweet potato

One or two red onions

2 cloves garlic

1 small chilli

2 veg stock cubes

Dried or fresh chives

Small piece root ginger

Freshly ground black pepper

Ground sea salt or rock salt (not too much)

Simplicity itself, chop it all up, put it in a big pan and cook. Once all the veg was cooked through I blended it but you could eat it as a ‘chunky’ soup if you prefer. It was delicious, the chilli and ginger gave it a bit of a kick, very warming on these cold wintry days.

 

Art Sunday; Tamara Adams

Tamara Adams;

 

 

I found this artist while looking around the web site of the ‘’Attic Gallery, Portland’’

http://www.atticgallery.com/genwebpage.ihtml?formid=1

The Attic Gallery began in l973 with a showing of Sidonie Caron's paintings. Today this gallery is the biggest in Portland and features the work of 65 contemporary artists

 

 

Tamara Adams is a young, contemporary, self-taught artist who believes she inherited her talent from her grandfather. Some of her earliest memories are of visiting her grandfather's studio where he painted and taught art classes. It was he who encouraged her to develop her art.

A Native Oregonian, Tamara paints in acrylic on canvas. She relies heavily on her imagination and tends not to use models or any other outside influence. She has a belief in the power of art to comfort and enrich the soul.

In Tamara's words, "It doesn't seem satisfying to say that I paint what I see, and yet it is what I see, wherever I go, whoever I am with, along with the things that surround me inspiring me to paint"

I chose to show her work this week because to me; while they may not rival Titian or Degas in the masterpiece steaks, they are warm and pleasant and have a touch of the exotic. I could even go so far as to say they celebrate the richness of diversity and rejoice in inclusiveness.  Perhaps I’m being a little fanciful here, but this is what I see in this work. The rest of her paintings are here.

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/202/Art_Sunday_Tamara_Adams_illustrations

Art Sunday; Tamara Adams, illustrations

Tamara Adams is a young, contemporary, self-taught artist who believes she inherited her talent from her grandfather. Some of her earliest memories are of visiting her grandfather's studio where he painted and taught art classes. It was he who encouraged her to develop her art.

Picture Perfect; seasonal, late afternoon sky

Autumn, late afternoon, the mist rises over the sea and the sun sits low in a muted sky.

Picture Perfect, Seasonal, illustrations

Late afternoon sky, muted colours with mist rising from the water

Song Saturday, Santana, Black magic Woman

Music for the Halloween series;

 Black Magic Woman, Carlos Santana,

 

Information from web site

 

http://www.cosmopolis.ch/english/cosmo2/santana.htm

 

 

Born in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico, Carlos Santana, grew up in the border town of Tijuana, where his family became established in 1955. His father, a mariachi violinist, had introduced him to traditional Mexican music. But soon, he was more interested in B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker. Aged 14, he started performing with his guitar in local bands and local bars. In 1961, he moved to San Francisco, rejoining his family which had moved there a year earlier. After finishing High School in October 1966, he founded the Santana Blues Band together with Gregg Rolie (*1947, key), David Brown (*1947, b), Tom Franzer (g) and Rod Harper (dr). They mainly played covers by B.B. King and Ray Charles. In May 1968, the first stable band emerged with Santana, Brown, Rolie, José Cheptio Areas (*1946, perc), Mike Carabello (*1947) and Michael Shrieve (*1949, dr). It took them only a few months with concerts in Avalon, Fillmore West and an appearance at the three days of the Sky River Rock Festival in Sultan, Washington, to become one of the first American rockbands - a place he and his band still occupy today, playing 'world music' long before the name was coined. Also important was their historic appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. The Santana Band's debut album, Santana sold double-platinum, their follow-up album Abraxas quadruple-platinum. Santana's selling record includes eight gold and seven platinum albums. But only at the end of 1999, aged 52, did Santana acheive his first US number one hit with Smooth, featuring Rob Thomas. In his career, he has sold over 40 million albums and performed in front of over 20 million people. And the rest, as they say, is history……………………………