“My name is Morgana Dias dos Santos Bantam. Call me Morgana. It’s shorter. Brazilian names can be a bit long. Boca de Ouro, Golden Lips, is my mentor.” “I am Golden Lips. Morgana is my most talented pupil. Oh yes, yes. I often tell her that her real name must be Morgan or Muirgen, King…
Pont Alexandre III. One of the most beautiful bridges in Paris. (If not THE most beautiful…) African masks, Quai Branly museum. Fang or Pahouin, Gabon. (I think.) White was often associated with death and mourning in Africa. Monument to Human rights, Champ de Mars. The Eiffel tower is to the right. (Not on the picture,…
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them everyone.Oh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?Where have all the young girls gone, long…
Shanghai Li, member of the Red Lanterns triad. By Hugo Pratt (c). In “Corto Maltese in Siberia”. “Tercera llamada” (“Third call”). Ernesto Cabral. 1926. A talemnted Mexican artist, Cabral sketched those daring young ladies who threw away their mothers’ long dresses and long hair by the window. Quite “osé” in 1926. De Gaulle. By the…
Kabul, 1953. Long before the many wars. My father Cyril was Air France General Manager in Pakistan. Karachi was the road to the Far East. Paris sent him to Kabul to investigate the possibility of opening a line to Afghanistan. My parents had lived in Pakistan for 6 years already. They spoke Urdu fluently. He…
A Paris sky. The Eiffel tower as seen from the Trocadéro, across the Seine. Summer 2022 A gentleman from Punjab maybe? A restaurant somewhere in Marylebone, London. Chicken Tikka Masala was excellent. Brussels, at the Mont des arts. A monument to rectitude? No. The statues are called “Musique et chant”, Music and song. By Oscar…
The pyramid of the Magician. Uxmal. c.1882. Désiré Charnay expedition. Charnay was a French explorer who documented a number of abandoned Maya cities in the peninsula of Yucatan, Mexico, in the second half of the 19th century. See the pyramid then: a heap of stones and earth, invaded by vegetation. The very same pyramid of…
Two men were lying facedown on the ground. Both covered their head with their hands in a futile attempt at protection against the bullets and rockets that flew above. They were about twenty yards away from each other. Separated by an imaginary line. Border or combat line. Who knows? Who cares? Were they civilians? Soldiers?…
This past summer, after the Jubilee, the Queen was everywhere in London. Even street artists paid homage. London, July 2022. Where does one start in London? Big ben? Westminster? 1649? When Cromwell declared England a Commonwealth and Free state? Later annexing Ireland and Scotland with a single Parliament in Westminster? The Underground’s a good start.…
Little G. helping an old Lady tag the wall. Paris, 2022 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1900-1944. The author of Vol de nuit (Night flight), Terre des hommes (Wind, sand and stars), The Little prince, and others, was born in Lyon in 1900. With his friends Mermoz, Guillaumet et al, he opened the world to air travel.…
Equinoxio 