John Cleese Live.

 Last nigh I spent just over two hours having an evening with John Cleese. Once back in 1993 I was attending a play in London and Mr Cleese was standing tall in the foyer as part of an audience. I am sure as I looked across the heads of the audience, which also included Marissa Berenson, he caught sight of me staring and immediately bobbed down out of sight. Perhaps I give myself too much credit but the bob was pure Python. I can not recall which evening it was. Either Diana Rigg or Stephen Berkoff.

 On this recent occasion I got to be entertained by and laugh with the genius himself. The sold out hall laughed and applauded non stop as he regaled us with anecdotes of his family, his home town, his career and friends interspersed with background and reliving of some of his greatest sketches. It was special to laugh in the company of another 2,000 people to some of my favourite lines and scenes. He is now a fabulous 72.

A stunning, hilarious, true and moving moment shown last night.

Cleese's Memorial Eulogy for his friend and collaborator Graham Chapman.

Salvador Dali

Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dali I Domenech was born on 11 th. May 1904 in the small town of Figueres, Spain, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. His father was a wealthy notary, and he spent his childhood in Figueres and at their summer home in the coastal village of Cadaques where his parents built his first studio. As an adult, he made his home with his wife Gala in nearby Port Lligat. Dali attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He had his first one-man show in Barcelona in 1925. He became internationally known when three of his paintings, were shown in the third annual Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928.

Dali and the gay poet Frederico Garcia Lorca first met while they were both attending art school. The two artistic powerhouses formed both an intimate and artistic passion for one another.

For a good article on their relationship go to http://downtownlalife.tripod.com/id589.html

     1929 Dali held his first show in Paris. He also joined the surrealists, led by former Dadaist Andre Breton. That year, Dali met Gala Eluard when she visited him in Cadaques with her husband, poet Paul Eluard. She became Dali's lover, muse, business manager, and greatest inspiration. They eventually married on the 8th. August 1958 six years after the death of her first husband.

Dali became a leader of the surrealist movement. His painting, The Persistance of Memory, with the melting watches is still one of the best-known pieces of art in the world. As the war approached, Dali clashed with the surrealists and was expelled from the surrealist group in 1934, however he continued to exhibit works internationally throughout the decade. By 1940, Dali was moving into a new style known as his classic period, exhibiting a preoccupation with science and religion.

They left Europe during World War II, spending 1940-48 in the United States. The Museum of Modern Art in New York gave Dali his first major retrospective exhibit in 1941. This was followed in 1942 by the publication of Dali's autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.

As Dali moved away from Surrealism and into his classic period, he began a series of 19 large canvases, many concerning scientific, historical or religious themes. Among the best known of these works areThe Hallucinogenic Toreador,  The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and The Sacrament of the Last Supper. In 1965 he published his book "Diary of a Genius." In 1974, Dali designed and opened the Teatro Museo in Figueres in, Spain. This was followed by retrospectives in Paris and London.

He worked with Louis Bunuel, The Marx Brothers, and also worked on a 6 minute Disney film (just recently completed in 2003) and had audiences with several Popes

On June 10th 1982 Gala died in Port Lligat at age eighty eight. Dali became a member of the nobility when King Juan Carlos, made him Marquis of Pubol and he moved into the Castle at Pubol, which was given to Gala as a gift. Dali's health began to fail and he painted his last painting "The Swallows Tail" in 1983. He was burned in a fire at home in 1984. Two years later, a pace-maker was implanted. Much of this part of his life was spent in seclusion in Pubol and his apartment at Torre Galatea, adjacent to the Teatro Museo. 

Salvador Dali died on January 23, 1989 in Figueres from heart failure with respiratory complications. He is interred in a crypt at the lower level of the Teartro-Museo Dali, leaving his estate to the Kingdom of Spain and the Independent Region Of Catalonia.

Two great DVD's I have on Dali.

One beautiful box set of his films

and my big gold Dali book

A video of some paintings

Unearthed Photos of Me

Found while visiting my Mother for my birthday. She celebrates it, I try to ignore it.

 I am sure this protected boy above explains a lot as to who I am today. But that football below certainly didn't get to me.

 

 Father back in the late nineteen twenties I assume.

 and Mother in early fifties.

More of the same on page 'Me and Why This Blog"

A couple from my Facebook page of me around the world

 

An ancient photograph I just unearthed of myself, my mother looking rather glamorous and my father, not at his best. A rare photo of me that I do not hate. Most go in the bin. I think perhaps I was still at school when this was taken. It elicited compliments on my Facebook page so I thought I would spread it further. Wish I still had that thick hair.