Today, Monday December 16, marks 75 years since the beginning of one of World War II’s most savage battles. In December 1944, the Nazi army surprised U.S. and Allied forces in the frozen forests of Belgium. Badly outnumbered, the U.S. lost 10,000 soldiers amid frigid conditions in the war’s deadliest conflict. John Yang reports on the commemoration of what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
Tag Archives: Europe
Top New Travel Videos: “Harvesting Mussels In Ireland” (Trip Sisters -National Geographic)
Join National Geographic digital contributors the “Trip Sisters” as they farm mussels at Killary Fjord Shellfish in Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way.
Top New Travel Videos: “Amazing Amorgos” In Greece” By Joerg Daiber
Filmed, Edited and Directed by: Joerg Daiber
I will never understand why so many people go to such an obvious Insta-tourist-trap like Santorini when there are so many amazing alternatives in Greece. Take Amorgos for instance. It’s the easternmost island in Greece’s Cyclades island group. With a land area of just 121 square kilometers, the island has a population of nearly 2000 people. It’s incredibly beautiful and no mass tourism is spoiling the fun so far.
The island was featured in Luc Besson’s film “The Big Blue.” Enjoy this trip around Amorgos and let me know what you think in the comments below. Shot by Joerg Daiber during the Yperia Film Festival in Amorgos.
Website: http://www.spoonfilm.com/
Cultural History Books: “Wicked City – The Many Cutures Of Marseille”
From a Literary Review online review:
The Toulousain Charles Dantzig wrote, ‘I find the Marseillais tiresome, especially those who, as soon as you speak to them, start to bang on about the uniqueness of being Marseillais, adding with a particular sort of whining machismo that no one likes them and everyone defames them. Their humour is nothing more than pitiable braggadocio.’ Régis Jauffret, who grew up there, is pithier: ‘Marseille is a tragic city. It formed my imagination.’ (It’s an imagination of peerless bleakness.)
Nicholas Hewitt died in March, less than a month after completing the text of Wicked City. It’s a fine monument to his curiosity, compendious knowledge, resourcefulness and measured enthusiasm. He calls it ‘a series of snapshots’, which is perhaps too modest. If they are snapshots, they have been photoshopped and retouched to accord with his vision of the city and its well-rehearsed mythology of outsiderdom and exceptionalism, edginess and banditry. And his aspiration to explore Marseille’s hold on the ‘nation’s imagination’ is also too modest. The ‘international imagination’ would be more apt.
To read more: https://literaryreview.co.uk/babylon-on-sea
Top New Podcasts: “The History Of Coffee” And Its Social Impact (BBC Radio)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and social impact of coffee. From its origins in Ethiopia, coffea arabica spread through the Ottoman Empire before reaching Western Europe where, in the 17th century, coffee houses were becoming established.
There, caffeinated customers stayed awake for longer and were more animated, and this helped to spread ideas and influence culture. Coffee became a colonial product, grown by slaves or indentured labour, with coffea robusta replacing arabica where disease had struck, and was traded extensively by the Dutch and French empires; by the 19th century, Brazil had developed into a major coffee producer, meeting demand in the USA that had grown on the waggon trails.
With
Judith Hawley
Professor of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
Markman Ellis
Professor of 18th Century Studies at Queen Mary University of London
And
Jonathan Morris
Professor in Modern History at the University of Hertfordshire
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Top New Travel Videos: “Navarre – Paradise Lost” In Spain By Txema Ortiz
Filmed, Edited and Directed by: Txema Ortiz
Navarra a beautiful and wonderful place. A lost paradise.
4K timelapse done entirely in Navarra. This video shows only a small part of the many charming places that this land has, in which you can admire various areas of the Navarra geography, its contrasts and its diversity of landscapes, which make it a very beautiful place to landscape and cultural level, a place to visit because it is worth it, its landscapes, its people, its culture and its cuisine are unique.
Video made with more than 15,000 photographs and several months of work at different times of the year.
Website: https://vimeo.com/txemaortiz
New Art History Books: “Feast & Fast – The Art Of Food In Europe 1500-1800”
Food defines us as individuals, communities, and nations – we are what we eat and, equally, what we don’t eat. When, where, why, how and with whom we eat are crucial to our identity. Feast and Fast presents novel approaches to understanding the history and culture of food and eating in early modern Europe.
This richly illustrated book will showcase hidden and newly-conserved treasures from the Fitzwilliam Museum and other collections in and around Cambridge. It will tease out many contemporary and controversial issues – such as the origins of food and food security, overconsumption in times of austerity, and our relationship with animals and nature – through short research-led entries by some of the world’s leading cultural and food historians.
Feast and Fast explores food-related objects, images, and texts from the past in innovative ways and encourages us to rethink our evolving relationship with food.
To read more and purchase:
Health: 2019 EU Report Features “Digital Tools” And “Prevention” As Keys For Improved Healthcare
To read full report: https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/state/docs/2019_companion_en.pdf
Top New Travel Videos: “Cantabria – Part 3” In Northern Spain By Juan Carlos Cartina
Filmed, Edited and Directed by: Juan Carlos Cortina
Music by: Marco Martini
In Euskadi and Cantabria, an adventure that began in 2017 on the Galician coast ends and that has meant a trip of 3 years throughout the north of Spain portrayed in 3 different timelapses. A trilogy that supposes the first time that a work of this type is realized in all the Cantabrian coast.
In this last part the trip begins in Santander and ends in Biarritz and the protagonist is mainly the marine and interior landscape of the Basque Country. With 14,500 photographs, it is the first time I explore Euskadi in depth and I have to say that I have returned absolutely in love with its corners, especially with all the wonderful area of the Urdaibai estuary. Recorded in May, September and October 2019.
See Part I and II below:
Website: https://www.jccortina.com/
Top Art Exhibitions: “Drape” Featuring Degas, Dürer At The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon
From the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon:
How is a drapery put in place? For what reasons does this motive persist until today? How to explain its power of fascination? These are the questions that this exhibition intends to pose, in order to enter the “factory” of the drapery and to get closer to the artistic gesture. By showing the stages of making a drapery, the visitor will discover the singular practices of artists from the Renaissance to the second half of the 20th century.
November 30, 2019 – March 8, 2020, Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon
Albrecht Dürer, Drapery Study, 1508, Brush and Indian Ink, heightened white on dark green paperThe Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon retains an exceptional drawing by Albrecht Dürer studying a piece of drapery. This meticulous study reveals how the flexibility of a fabric lends itself to an infinity of folds, underlined by shadows and lights.
To read more: http://www.mba-lyon.fr/mba/sections/fr/expositions-musee/le-drape/exposition-le-drape
Boomers Daily 