Staying in Touch

Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam

So there I was pouring my heart out to my husband over Skype, when next thing I am talking to the corner of the ceiling in his hotel room in Shanghai, while he adjusted the volume. It kind of broke the moment. Sometimes modern technology is not all it's cracked up to be...or maybe it's the powers that be who complicate matters so? You'd swear we were trying to get through to heaven. 

My husband has been in China for ten days now and we have had a fair amount of contact via email, Blackberry Messenger and the occasional good old-fashioned telephone call. Skype has been a bit irritating as the connection is not always very clear. And then he also keeps fiddling with it so that I find myself talking to his left ear or chin, just when I have something rather important to share. 

He's not doing very well with the jet lag and so we are having chats at 21h00 South African time when it's 03h00 in China! I am not sure how he is functioning in meetings during the day. I am not complaining as it's good to know that there's someone on the other side of the world to talk to at any time. 

Usually, he likes to catch up with my blog when he is away - he is one of my silent followers who never leaves comments - but this time, horror of horrors (!) he has discovered that the blogger site has been blocked. I certainly don't have anything that needs to be censored in my blog, or so I believe, but I think that it's the whole site and more, which he cannot access. It's a reminder to not take free speech for granted and to keep fighting for it when we do have it. 

Meanwhile I await his return when he can read my blogs at home...and not comment. 

Michelangelo's David - Withstanding Time

On this day in 1504 the statue of David by Michelangelo was unveiled outside the Palazzo della Signoria in Firenze. The statue was originally supposed to be one of many which would adorn buttresses of the Duomo. However, it was not deemed fit for the original commission and it stood outside the Palazzo for hundreds of years, withstanding time and the elements before being moved into the Galleria Accademia.

The David is splendid, as we experienced on a recent trip to Italy.  It's an unusual statue, because the boy is depicted in the moments before he attacked Goliath.  Most statues at the time showed the moments after David had cut off Goliath’s head. Of course we have to remember that any art is merely the artist’s impression. The David of the Bible was a young boy and could not have been quite so god-like in physique. Michelangelo was certainly showing off his knowledge of anatomy.

It was rather disconcerting to discover that the statue is slowly leaning over as a result of the erosion. Movement detectors have been employed to monitor any shift in the statue and plans are afoot to counter any damage. All those years standing outside have taken their toll, but isn't it amazing that something which was created hundreds of years ago is now being rescued by modern technology?

No photographs are allowed inside. “But if you want, you can take a picture of the pink David in the courtyard,” our guide informed us. There was a concurrent exhibition of modern art at the gallery and the garish pink David with yellow hair (including his pubic hair) and blue eyes must be making Michelangelo roll over in his grave. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture.  This photo of Statue of David is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

You can read more about this in today’s edition of the Writers’ Almanac:

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