Travelogue: St. Paul de Vence

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  I haven’t done a travelogue in awhile and I received an email inviting me this Friday to a special member only preview of the Chagall and Russian avant-garde exhibit at the Ontario Art Gallery. The installation comprises 118 works in painting, sculpture, film, photography and works on paper including 32 works by Chagall and 8 works by Kandinsky. Other Russian modernists included in the exhibit are Malevich, Goncharova, Delaunay and Tatlin. This got me thinking about one of my favourite travel locations, Saint Paul de Vence in the south of France, since Chagall’s tomb is in the cemetery on the north end of the village and it fits my travelogue criteria of being relatively unknown, great place to visit and I’ve been there in person so the information is first hand.

  The village is an old medieval town in the French Riviera about an hour’s drive North West of Nice in the  Alpes-Martimes department of south-eastern France and is well known among the cognoscenti for its contemporary art galleries, hotels and restaurants. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was threatened by barbarian invasions so the local inhabitants built “perched villages” on the high grounds of the region.

Saint Paul from the south

  The present ramparts were constructed under the orders of Francois I in the renaissance period in order to repel the attacks in the area of the troops under the command of Charles Quint.

The fortifications were abandoned at the end of the Empire. However, in 1832, a committee of military engineers decided to restore them. When Saint-Paul was demilitarised in 1870, the ramparts were sold off at auction. The mayor of the commune, deeming the fortifications of public importance, negotiated with the French government to save them from demolition. In 1872, the commune bought the ramparts for 400 Francs!

Imposing ramparts rear out of the Provençal countryside. Glowing in the Mediterranean light they structure a prestigious village that gradually, with the increasing popularity of the French Riviera, proved irresistible to artists and tourists. (website)

Entrance to St. Paul

  Many well known artists including Matisse, Soutine, Chagall, Renoir, Signac, Modigliani and Dufy have lived in the village during the last century. Today there are many upscale galleries owned by local artists in the heart of the hamlet but make sure you can afford the pieces before you’re tempted and if you have a good eye then you might find some great bargains. Don’t buy anything that you can’t take with you. I learned about this the hard way when I bought a silk on silk Sultan`s weave rug in Turkey and had it shipped home but never received it so I was out about $5000.

Lane in St. Paul filled with tourists

Art studio

Side Lane looking east

Marc Chagall, artist, tomb

   Marc Chagall lived in Saint-Paul from 1966 to 1985. During that time, he relentlessly incorporated the village and its ramparts into his paintings. Enveloped in the Mediterranean landscapes he found so fascinating, Marc Chagall painted love: couples in love and multi-coloured bouquets swirling above the village in an eternally serene sky. (website)

St. Paul cemetary looking north

  Lots of one and two star Michelin restaurants in the village. I would recommend La Table de Pierre.

Une nouvelle collaboration entre le Chef Emmanuel LEHRER et Michel ROSTANG, Grand Chef Relais & Châteaux, 2 étoiles Michelin à Paris. Les deux chefs partagent le même goût pour une cuisine passionnée et généreuse et signent la carte du restaurant.

En soirée, place à une gastronomie colorée toute méditerranéenne.
Terrasse panoramique ombragée ou salle à manger avec sa majestueuse cheminée.

  If you have to have a Big Mac then there’s a MacDonald’s about 4km south of the village. They serve wine and fresh croissants so it can be different from home.

Fountain near hotel

   Quite a choice in hotels and B&B. The old mainstay is the La Columbe d'Or.

"Connue dans le monde entier, l'Auberge de la Colombe d'Or est un lieu privilégié qui associe la douceur de vivre en Provence à une étonnante collection particulière d'art moderne. Au fil des décennies, la famille Roux qui garde le secret de cet art de vivre inégalé, a vu son destin mêlé à des êtres d'exception tels que Pablo Picasso, Jacques Prévert, Yves Montand ou James Baldwin. Habitués de ce très bel endroit, Matisse, Braque, Léger, Calder, César et bien d'autres, y ont laissé des oeuvres magnifiques qui font désormais partie de ce cadre unique." M. Assouline.

Piscine découverte chauffée, terrasse, jardins, sauna, voiturier.

Restaurant : cuisine traditionnelle régionale. Terrasse.

Map of St. Paul de Vence

Remember, remember

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

  New York Police have been charging demonstrators at Occupy Wall Street protest area under New York`s Penal Law 240.35 as promulgated below:

Being masked or in any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration, loiters, remains or congregates in a public place with other persons so masked or disguised, or knowingly permits or aids persons so masked or disguised to congregate in a public place; except that such conduct is not unlawful when it occurs in connection with a masquerade party or like entertainment if, when such entertainment is held in a city which has promulgated regulations in connection with such affairs, permission is first obtained from the police or other appropriate authorities.

  So Guy Fawkes masks are out of bounds although if the demonstrations last until Halloween on October 31, the protesters will get a pass for one night. This is a class B misdemeanour which allows the judge to impose a prison sentence of up to three months. The photo below was taken on Wall street, New York on October, 2011 by David Shankbone under a creative commons licence.

Thanksgiving 2011

My youngest daughter and her boyfriend

 

    On Sunday, I had Canadian Thanksgiving with three of my children and my youngest daughter’s boyfriend. Thanksgiving Day or Jour de l'Action de grâce (fr.) is an annual Canadian statutory holiday which occurs at the end of the harvest season and is before the American one because of the northern climate`s earlier harvest. I believe that Columbus Day in the States is on the same day. The Kitchener – Waterloo Oktoberfest parade in western Ontario is today followed by a three day beer and German food festival.

Since 1969, Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest has developed its own traditions, becoming the largest Bavarian festival in North America with the greatest Thanksgiving Day Parade in Canada. Thousands of visitors celebrate annually in our Festhallen, and by attending one or more of our 40 family and cultural events. Through the celebration of this Spirit of Gemuetlichkeit, the local economy is stimulated and over 70 charities and not-for-profit organizations raise funds to support the high quality of life enjoyed in Kitchener-Waterloo. Willkommen to you, your family and friends.

Thanksgiving dinner

 

   I had Turkey with stuffing, beets, apple salad, mashed potatoes, homemade buns, squash and gravy for the main course. For dessert, I ate homemade pumpkin pie as well as homemade apple (northern spy) with whipped cream. The wine was a white German Spätlese (late harvest) to compliment the main course and an Ontario Niagara region ice-wine to go with desert. Certainly filling!

Homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream

Homemade apple pie

Academic archetypes

  Last month, I wanted to escape from the confines of the Fortress of Solitude, my home base and go to the I.A.S. annual conference for intellectual stimulation as well as the entertainment value. This was held at a designated military friendly college in northern ``fly over country`` which for reasons of anonymity I will call the University of Narnia, a state which like the fictional world of C.S. Lewis magic or in this case magical thinking is common and good (Jesus) battles evil (Liberals etc.). Originally I had thought that ``military friendly`` meant the faculty wore fatigues and the college cafeteria served MREs but it was more like the college ROTC re-enacting the Battle of Wounded Knee and a demonstration of an armed predator drone scouting the border and making incursions into the Great White North looking for targets of opportunity. I used the names of some of the characters in the Narnia series of books by C. S. Lewis to represent the various academic archetypes present at the conference.

Name: Aslan

Profile: Master of his realm. Talks in Old English. Has the rock star quality of Bernard-Henri Lévy in his prime, Camus’s instinct for justice and the courage of Malraux. Refers to the female members of the society in Pope John Paul’s litany of “little sisters``. Sees anchorites in terms of spirituality and hagiography. Makes keynote speech. Divorced. Only dates women under 25 like Hugh Hefner.

Writing sample:

Ther-efter anan-riht ure Leafdi uht-song - ant seggeth o this wise: yef hit is werc-dei, falleth to ther eorthe; yef hit is hali-dei, buhinde sum-deal dune-ward seggeth Paternoster ant Credo ba stille. Rihteth ow up th'refter ant seggeth, Domine, labia mea

aperies. Makieth on ower muth a creoiz with the thume. Ed Deus in adiutorium, a large creoiz with the thume ant with the twa fingres, from buve the forheaved dun to the breoste, ant falleth to the eorthe - yef hit is werc-dei with Gloria Patri, other buheth dune-ward, yef hit [is] hali-dei athet Sicut erat. Thus ed euch Gloria Patri anted te biginnunge of the Venite, ant i the Venite, ed Venite, adoremus, ant ed te Ave, Maria, ant hwer-se ye eaver hereth Maries nome i-nempnet, ant ed euch Pater noster thet falle to ower ures ant to the Credo ant to the collecte ed eaver-euch tide, ant ed te leate-meste vers of eaver-euch ymne, ant ed te leaste vers withuten an of the salm, Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Domino. Ed alle thes ilke, yef hit is hali-dei, buheth

sum-del dune-wart. Yef hit is werc-dei, falleth to ther eorthe. Ed te biginnunge of eaver- euch tide, with Deus in adiutorium, makieth rode-taken as ich ear tahte. Ed Veni, Creator buheth other cneolith efter thet te dei is. With Memento, salutis auctor, falleth eaver adun, ant ed tis word, Nascendo formam sumpseris, cusseth the eorthe, ant alswa i the Te Deum laudamus, ed tis word: Non horruisti virginis uterum, ant ed te messe i the muchele Credo, ed ex Maria Virgine ant Homo factus est.(A. W.)

Habitat:  Fancy pants Ivy League school

Favourite activity: Giving ten point forced choice likert scale tests to reclusives.

Response to Why God never got tenure at any university:

“Sure he created the universe but what has he done lately?”

Name: White witch

Profile: Feminist. Founding member of the French feminist group, Chiennes de garde whose motto is “Contre les insultes sexists publiques”. Sees anchoress as proto feminists.  Has homicidal fantasies about Aslan. Makes introductory speech and almost chokes on compliments about the keynote speaker. Never Married.

Writing sample:

Nous, Chiennes de garde, nous montrons les crocs, pour impressionner  the macho, to make us respect, to protect women iles machos, pour nous faire respecter, pour défendre des femmes insultées.

WARNING! ATTENTION ! Grrrrrrrrrrr ...! Grrrrrrrrrrr… ! We could hurt if we were very Nous pourrions faire mal si nous étions très  angry if we do conten colère, si nous ne nous contrôlions plus. Imagine that there are Imaginez qu'il existe  des  Rabid dogs, very dangerouChiennes enragées, très dangereuses. Imagine they are directed Imaginez qu'elles soient dirigées  by terrrrible head of the pack, who decides to tackle the macho criminals, those who fight, who rape, killing of women, lopar une terrrrible cheffe de meute, qui décide de s'attaquer aux machos criminels, ceux qui battent, qui violent, qui tuent des femmes, des faibles. Imagine it launches horrrrible battle cry: "Down with macho! Imaginez qu'elle lance son horrrrible cri de guerre : « Sus aux machos !  Unleash the do Lâchez les Chiennes ! Ksssss kssss! Ksssss kssss ! Bite them! Mordez-les ! No quarter! Pas de quartier ! " »  STOPSTOP ! It was a nightmare. C'était un cauchemar. Returning to the guard dogs, Revenons aux Chiennes de garde,  so peacefusi pacifiques ! Whew! Ouf ! We are not vicious dogs, Nous ne sommes pas des Chiennes méchantes,
but we are not brave many nice dogsmais nous ne sommes pas non plus de braves chiennes bien gentilles, we do go with the niche susucrequ'on fait rentrer à la niche avec un susucre. We say: Nous disons :  "I bark, therefore I am ... feminist solidarity« J'aboie, donc je suis… féministe et solidaire. " »  And attention, machoEt attention, les machos ! (website)

Habitat: Gingerbread house

Favourite activity: Eating students. (Preferably male)

Response to Why God never got tenure at any university:

“He had only one major publication which was written in Hebrew, had no references and wasn’t published in a referred journal.”

Name: Shasta a.k.a Golden Boy

Profile: Like Shasta in C. S. Lewis’ Narnia kidnapped as a boy and raised as a fisherman’s son in a remote village but in reality royal heir to Aslan.  Uses Derrida’s “Sous rature” especially in articles refuting White Witch’s papers on Anchorites. Married to second wife who was a former student.

Writing sample:

White witch’s contention that anchorites were “promiscuous in female – female eroticism due to the privacy of the anchor hold which acted as a liminal space permitted by medieval theological constructs of the spiritual fallen nature of women in general” is another example of her extrapolations of the vague suppositions of medieval male writings acting as a mirror to the sexual insecurities and speculations of the clerical class and also White witch’s Eurocentric perceptions which are at odds with modern day inter disciplinary interpretations as well as the conclusions of any serious scholar of the anchorite field known to me. Positing a “lesbian void” based on the architecture of the anchor hold and the inferred permission granted by the Ancrene Wisse and other texts is laughable and unworthy of a noted scholar engaged in a form of historical revisionism and reconstruction of implied events. I defer to Aslan’s commonly accepted analysis of the phenomena which is at odds with White witch’s conjectures and creative reinterpretation of the facts. I grant that being private was an unusual circumstance in the communal housing arrangements of the medieval age but one cannot project social and sexual modifications of behaviour from mere opportunity.

Habitat: R-1 University

Favourite activity: Bragging about his tenured position, lack of service obligations and teaching requirements

Response to Why God never got tenure at any university:

“He rarely showed up in class and told his students to read the Book. ``

Name: Green witch a.k.a Iron Butterfly

Profile: Feminist. White witch’s adjunct during the conference and far Eastern member of society. Ghost writer of Soshokukei Danshi Ojo-man Ga Nippon wo Kaeru (The Herbivorous Ladylike Men Are Changing Japan). Goal to do yubi-tsume [（指詰め・ゆびつめ）: The act of slicing off a part of the pinky finger to atone for an error.] on Golden Boy.

Writing sample:

In Japanese but also a screen writer for the Japanese TV series Otomen. The title, "Otomen" is a pun made of the Japanese word otome (乙女), meaning "young lady" or "mistress", and the English word "men". (正宗 飛鳥, Masamune Asuka) is the main character. See the video below:

Habitat: University of Tokyo

Favourite activity:  Carrying out giri （義理・ぎり）: debt or obligation. A complex concept of duty unique to Japanese culture which demonstrates both the gratitude one has for an act of kindness and the obligation to carry out revenge. Always carries a can of mace [催涙スプレー (さいるいスプレー, sairui spray which translates directly as “tear spray”]

Response to Why God never got tenure at any university:

"Almost every one of His students failed His tests although there were only ten requirements."

Name: Nikabrik a.k.a Platinum kid

Profile: Up and comer. Entertains White witch in her homicidal fantasies about Aslan when the Master isn’t around. Always carries a worn copy of the MLA Style Guide. Goal to be the modern version of Gaius Maecenas. Knows how to suck up in eight languages. Single but hoping to hook up at the conference.

Writing sample:

This is another example of Aslan’s profound understanding of the nature of the theological and social implications of the anchorite calling….etc.

Habitat: Mid western remedial and custodial educational institute

Favourite activity: networking

Response to Why God never got tenure at any university:

"He expelled His initial two students for learning."

Nuit Blanche

   Each year on the first Saturday of October most of downtown Toronto turns into an interactive art exhibit from 6:49 pm on Saturday to sunrise on Sunday and this year there were 132 separate art installations divided into three regions of the downtown area.

   The City of Toronto commissioned 45 public art exhibits by local, national and international artists while the local educational, cultural and neighbourhood groups and institutions had independent art projects. All installations were free and open to the general public. My favourite was the streetcar at the corner of Yonge and Dundas streets which was turned into an adventure ride and can be seen on the video below.

   Another example was Scotiabank’s Fluxe project:

FLUXe is an imaginative collaboration of strangers and artists coming together to create on a large digital canvas - a 100 foot x 33 foot LED screen suspended on the north side of Scotia Plaza. In this interactive digital art installation, you’ll have the opportunity to transform the urban back drop of Scotia Plaza with your own creative vision in collaboration with one of nine featured artists.

Be the artist!

Move your finger to create brushstrokes that instantly transform the grey cityscape into a space that echoes your most unique inner artistry. Once you’ve created your whimsical composition, watch as other people add their creative twist, making it a constantly changing work of art. Then go to the FLUXe facebook gallery to see your artwork and to enter for a chance to win a Blackberry playbook.

A diverse group of artists spanning a wide range of artistic styles created brush patterns to make your painting even more inspired. Combine their vision with your creative finger for an unforgettable foray into immersive art.

   And here is another video:

  There're lots of more videos of the various installations on youtube. Public transit was available all night but no cars.

On critical thinking

Quantum Ergodicity

People tend to think in dichotomous ways. For example, if you happen to question the efficacy of various sorts of "alternative medicine," people will think you are an advocate of everything that the big pharmaceutical companies advocate. Really, though, those two questions are totally separate. A treatment associated with "alternative medicine" works (or not) because of whether it works, not because it is "alternative" or "natural." A drug developed by a drug company has the effects that it has, the efficacy (or not) that is has, because of what it does, not because of its origin. A scientific theory is valid if it works and produces the predictions it has predicted, not because it is "science."

  The quote above is from Jonathan`s blog called Stupid Motivational Tricks and is an example of a particular philosophical viewpoint called Instrumentalism.

 In the philosophy of science, instrumentalism is the view that a scientific theory is a useful instrument in understanding the world. A concept or theory should be evaluated by how effectively it explains and predicts phenomena, as opposed to how accurately it describes objective reality.

Instrumentalism avoids the realism/ antirealism debate andd may be better characterised as non-realism. Instrumentalism shifts the basis of evaluation away from whether or not phenomena observed actually exist, and towards an analysis of whether the results and evaluation fit with observed phenomena. (Wikipedia)

  The problem is that eventually new data is recorded which either contradicts the theory or lie outside the boundary conditions of the hypothesis. By Jonathan`s measure, Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe would be ``valid`` since Ptolemy`s Handy Tables could predict the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon. The point is not to eviscerate J.`s line of reasoning but to emphasize the consequences of wrong assumptions even though the theory appears to work during a certain period of time. Neo classical economics also relies on Instrumentalism. The former éminence grise of the current flock of economists who got us into this mess was Milton Friedman who was also an Instrumentalist.  In a 1953 paper, he stated:

Truly important and significant hypotheses will be found to have “assumptions” that are wildly inaccurate descriptive representations of reality, and in general, the more significant the theory, the more unrealistic the assumptions. . . . The reason is simple. A hypothesis is important if it “explains” much by little, that is, it abstracts the common and crucial elements from the mass of complex and detailed circumstances surrounding the phenomenon to be explained and permits valid predictions on the basis of them alone. To be important, therefore, a hypothesis must be deceptively false in its assumptions; it takes account of, and accounts for, none of the many other attendant circumstances, since its very success shows them to be irrelevant for the phenomenon to be explained.

To put the point less paradoxically, the relevant question to ask about the “assumptions” of a theory is not whether they are descriptively “realistic,” for they never are, but whether they are sufficiently good approximations for the purpose at hand. And this question can be answered only by seeing whether the theory works, which means whether it yields sufficiently accurate predictions.

  This is a ``get out of jail`` card for such false right wing economic assumptions such as the rational expectations theory which says that people always act rationally using perfect information( i.e they`re omniscient) to maximize their utility so that an equilibrium price for the product in question is reached in which supply perfectly matches demand. This is the basis for the” Efficient market hypothesis” where the current state of the market represents the ideal situation since all information is present in the prices of the market. Spiro Latsis refers to this form of human behaviour as situational determinism where in any particular situation all people make the same choices – humans are an ergodicitic ensemble. If you partition the population into sub populations then the people in each partition will act like the people in each of the other partitions. This is closer to theology than science and definitely not the intuitive understanding of human nature but according to Friedman it doesn’t matter. This is why economists were caught flat footed in the 2008 crisis because according to their mathematical models it couldn’t happen. There was no variable for the massive fraud which was the fundamental business model for the financial sector and fraud is a type of asymmetrical information in which one party knows things that the other party doesn`t which implies imperfect information that according to the efficient market hypothesis and rational expectations theory can`t exist.

  So false assumptions can seriously screw things up eventually although at the time, they appear not to matter – you can use your alternative medicine for quite a while with the appearance of only beneficial effects but wait until your liver has an infection and can`t metabolise the active ingredient at the usual rate or your kidney has an infection and the excretion rate of the active ingredient drops. You could have a serious overdose taking the usual dosage and your alternative medicine man will not be up to the situation.

  Social scientists have a particular problem with expressing critical thoughts since chaos and transition are their equivalent of natural scientist`s controlled experiments. Like Heraclites, it`s hard to describe a moving river when it changes every time you step in it so you use fluff words like ``transgressive`` and liminality to discuss periods of change and cover up the level of perceptual ambiguity on the part of the observer. Free floating, self referential data sets like the Rosenberg self esteem scale with a variety of anchoring schemes using the opinions of experts and semi-experts are the norm. This scale was used in the infamous “debt increases student self esteem” paper which Clarissa and I discussed a while ago. I could make quite a long list of dubious assumptions in this paper which is another instance of Instrumentalism as well as ergodicity where a stochastic system of student outcomes tends in probability to a limiting form which is independent of the initial conditions. (To be continued)

Word on the street festival

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  Last Sunday, I went to the Word on the Street festival which is the largest book and magazine sale in Canada. If you’re looking for rare or out of print books or magazines then you’ll probably find it here at a really good price. Most books with the exception of current best sellers went for under $10 and often for much less. They were in many languages and from a variety of countries as befits a cosmopolitan city like Toronto.

Largest book sale in Canada

 The inaugural festival took place on Sunday, September 30, 1990 which coincided with International Literacy Year and the crowds as well as the variety of vendors have increased every year since the beginning. According to the Toronto Star:

A varied assortment of word-loving groups attended the festival, including the Poets League, the Horror Writers Association (complete with a grave stone RIP-patterned tablecloth), and ChiZine Publications, a publisher of surreal and disturbing fiction. “If we can frighten dogs and children we’re doing our job,” said co-publisher Sandra Kasturi.

Great prices and hard to find books

Rare poetry books

Looking south on Avenue road with book vendor tents

More tents in the park

A stall for every taste

Author readings

Rare magazine stall

Nail your favorite columnist

Any language that you can imagine

Post revolution Cuban books and magazine stall