The Monk of Cappadoccia – Part I

Cappadoccia (Kapadokya), a beautiful mysterious place.

In the 4th century AD it was the center of major developments in Christian theology and philosophy.

The tradition of the Christian Orthodox religion remains strong even today in the rough and mysterious landscape.

A lot of men are abandoning the life we know to become monks leaving in the caves carved inside the rocks centuries ago.

This is the story of one of them.

His name is Kostas T. He grew up in a city in the North of Greece.

As a Lyceum student he distinguished himself in carving names and hearts in trees, and there are a lot of them in the countryside around the city.

After serving in the Greek Army he started working as a model.

His success brought him a lot of female admirers.

As it usually happens, none of them captured Kostas’ heart.

The lucky ones got to experience his extra-ordinary love making for one night, or two.

No one seemed to be able to tame the young stud, until he met Iphigenie M, a beautiful heiress of a ship owning family of the island of Andros.

Happiness was knocking on their door.

But life was hard on Kostas.

Quite accidentally, Iphigenie met Sophie M, an Australian girl who was working in Greece as a waitress after having divorced her Greek husband.

They became fiends and she was introduced to Kostas.

After a few days, a Ménage à trois (a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as “household of three”)  was formed, the two women and Kostas becoming entangled in a world of passion.

Days and months passed by.

One morning, Kostas woke up in a state of deep anxiety.

He went to his two lovers and declared that this cannot continue any more.

He was hoping to convince Iphigenie to dump Sophie and then marry her.

Alas! Iphigenie was caught in the nets of Sophie!

Sophie got so upset with Kostas wanting to break up the trio, that she started eating hamburgers one after the other, and then to burn the calories she was washing cars. The photo above is proof of her condition.

After doing this for fun she opened a car laundry serving the best hamburgers in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Iphigenie tasted the hamburgers and decided she was going to stay with Sophie.

A hamburger changed Kostas’ life!

Kostas became a wreck and started having visions of meeting Death.

Suicide was imminent.

And then things took a totally unexpected turn.

Kostas was spending a lot of time with his parents trying to clear his mind.

One evening, after dinner, he found a book in his father’s library, opened it and started reading it.

It was a book by Saint Basil on the Human condition.

Saint Basil writes,
“Examine what sort of being you are. Know your own nature, that your body is mortal but your soul is immortal, and that our life is twofold in kind. One kind is proper to the flesh, quickly passing by, while the other is akin to the soul, not admitting of circumscription. Therefore be attentive to yourself, neither remaining in mortal things as if they were eternal, nor despising eternal things as if they were passing. Look down on the flesh, for it is passing away; take care of the soul, for it is something immortal…

For when the body enjoys well-being and becomes heavy through much fleshiness, the mind is necessarily inactive and slack in its proper activity; but when the soul is in good condition and through care of its own goods is raised up toward its proper greatness, following this the state of the body withers.”

Kostas was struck by thunder.

He kissed his parents good bye and started the long journey to Cappadoccia.

His life was never going to be the same.

Once he arrived there, he enlisted in the Christian Orthodox legion of monks and started praying.

He never lifted his eyes above to see the sky.

He never breathed freely the fresh air.

His eyes were almost shut, open only enough for him to read and cry.

One day he lifted his face and looked up.

What he saw in front of him was like a vision.

A beautiful woman on a bicycle.

The woman on the bicycle was a psychoanalyst, who was visiting Cappadoccia for a few days.

She needed this break.

Her job was full of the joys and sorrows of the human affairs, and she needed to get away from all that.

Her name was Elektra, and was French from the region of Alsace. She lived and worked in the city of Colmar.

The woman noticed him. and responded enthusiastically.

to be continued….

The 20th century Venus of Urbino – Monica Bellucci

I know, I know, it was supposed to be only a three part sequence, but life is unpredictable, and Monica is the favourite of the Maestro. While I was indulging with all the others, the Maestro appeared in front of me and said that Monica is his clear favourite! How could a mere mortal confront the Maestro Tiziano?

down-Monica_Bellucci-01 It is not a blonde after all!

It is not an American!

It is an Italian girl!

And what a girl she is!

monica_bellucci025She is smoking hot, she is true fire, she is going all the way!

monica_bellucci_01Lets face it, the Maestro is right!

monica_bellucci022Beauty is such a transient feature,

but again, life is!

And yet it is not,

it depends on how you look at it!

And how you feel!

And what you want and what you need!

Buonanotte amici!!!

mouth

Mille bacci a tutti!!!

The 20th century Venus of Urbino – Part III: Streep, Pfeiffer, Thurman

This is Part III of the search for the 20th century Venus of Urbino, starring Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Uma Thurman. After Part I (Cardinale, Aimee, Hayworth), and Part II (Vitti, Deneuve, Dunaway), this is now the final part.

Meryl Streep

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
~Albert Einstein ~

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Meryl_Streep - 01 - The_Devil_Wears_Prada

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Michelle Pfeiffer

Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind,
he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty,
but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality),
and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.”
N.B.: This famous aphorism is often misquoted, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
~Plato ~

pfeiffer

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Uma Thurman

She walks in beauty,
Like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes
~Lord Byron ~

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Uma Thurman_2

Conclusion

There is no conclusion.

What began as a quest for the discovery of the 20th century Venus of Urbino, ended in a dead end.

Beauty is endless, cannot be confined in one vessel of human form.



The 20th century Venus of Urbino – Part II: Vitti, Dunaway, Deneuve

I continue with the journey I started yesterday, nominating the candidates for the 20th century Venus of Urbino. Today I present Monica Vitti, Faye Dunaway and Catherine Deneuve.

The axiom that guides this contribution is that what makes the Urbino Venus unique and classical is her ambivalence and unpredictability. We have to do in a sense with a naked Mona Lisa, only in this case the whole body is the protagonist of the posture, not just the mouth and the eyes.

Monica Vitti

Waiting for Godot…

vitti2A pensive look in the mirror

annex-vitti-monica_02Que sera sera!

vitti3Faye Dunaway

I knew I was overdressed!

big-1967-faye-dunaway

May you go quiet into the night

dunaway2Elegance

a1968-faye-dunaway-thomas-crown-2Catherine Deneuve

deneuve1She has been a beauty since her early days

helmut_newton_catherine_deneuveIn front of Helmut Newton’s lens she is the captivating eternal beauty.

catherine1I can spend a whole life looking at her without wanting to look at anything else!

As an epilogue to part 2, I remind everyone the lyrics of the song from the Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

I Will Wait For You (Norman Gimbel/ Jacques Demy/ Michel Legrand)

If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you
Till you’re back beside me, till I’m holding you
Till I hear you sigh here in my arms

Anywhere you wander, anywhere you go
Every day remember how I love you so
In your heart believe what in my heart I know
That forevermore I’ll wait for you

The clock will tick away the hours one by one
Then the time will come when all the waiting’s done
The time when you return and find me here and run
Straight to my waiting arms

If it takes forever I will wait for you
For a thousand summers I will wait for you
Till you’re here beside me, till I’m touching you
And forevermore sharing your love

The 20th century Venus of Urbino – Part I: Hayworth, Aimee, Cardinale

As it happens, the community of this blog, nicknamed “Binelik Atelier” has started a discourse on who might pose for the “Venus of Urbino”, should Titian be a 20th century painter.

I start my contribution from the axiom that what makes the Urbino Venus unique and classical is her ambivalence and unpredictability. We have to do in a sense with a naked Mona Lisa, only in this case the whole body is the protagonist of the posture, not just the mouth and the eyes.

This is Part I, as there are many Venus candidates for the 20th Century. Here we go!!!

Rita Hayworth

Flirting – Are you looking at me sailor? rhayworth21

Seductive optimism rides the waves

Rita_Hayworth_42

(Pensive)…. where have the good times gone?

rita-hayworth
Anouk Aimee
anouk20aimee1xe3

Sensitive, fragile

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Life Magazin, 1967

feminine, elegant

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Life Magazin, 1967

discretely intense, these eyes can direct you to murder all the way!

Claudia Cardinale

I want to share some bad thoughts…

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I want to have a shower …
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and then go to bed…

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