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Showing posts from May, 2012

La Dolce Vita - parading in the Piazza Ducale.

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Sitting in the Piazza Ducale, in Vigevano, Italy can be extremely self indulgent. The whole experience is an assault on the senses. It is a veritable feast of Italian life and culture. For the antipasti, (starters), there is the richness of the architecture. The Piazza is said to be the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing in all of Italy after San Marco, Venice. It's proportions are 1:3 apparently, which is difficult to see unless you are an architect. However it is undoubtedly pleasing to the eye and balanced in its aspect with the Duomo at one end and its colonnaded walkways, providing shade and protection from the weather, on the other three sides. Next in the feast comes il primo piatto (the first course) which undoubtedly must be the cafes and gelateria, that jostle for attention and offer invitations to share the delights of fabulous ice cream, aromatic coffee and if, like me, you love the distinctive combination of the two that the Italians have created, an affogat

Birtill and Baxter (Kruger) hanging out together.

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A couple of weeks ago we dropped into a Partners in Harvest event in Hemel Hempstead, UK. We met loads of friends but in literally, the last five minutes we ran into Willie and Mandy, great friends from Brockton.  We share lots with them but recently I introduced them to C Baxter Kruger. Now they are hooked too. In our brief chat they asked if we had heard Godfrey Birtill's latest Album "The Wine is Alive". Willie dashed to the car and ran back and thrust a very well played CD into my hands.  His said to me, "You will love Track 3!"  I have been playing it ever since. It's excellent.  It's like Birtill and Baxter have been hanging out together and inspiring each other. The whole album sings truth and lifts us above so much of our miserable pleading that we call Christian worship, begging God to show up as if he isn't with us already.   It is a mixture of styles and may not appeal to everyone but the words, oh the words are great.  The track that Ma