Kylie Flavell #4 Purloining the Patreon Purse

[Spirit of place]

My advice to Jerry -apart from taking a picnic whenever possible (ha) is to let your partner speak & you ,shtoum till you get served. However I imagine you are both wised up by now & ask for the menu with prices before choosing. I've been searching for a tv programme I saw a while back about Venice & price fixing for tourists, where they did a sort of candid camera & sent a tourist and a local at different times to a variety of locations to see the difference. And do you know the prices coincided & everyone got a receipt (hidden camera natch) Surprise, surprise with the journalists trying to figure it out and came to the conclusion maybe the city has better check-ups living as it does from 90% tourism. I must say here in Salento prices are always displayed so you know beforehand if you can afford to be ripped off or not
By coincidence today I read that a pest of a guy who goes up & down Italy thru' all the villages with a loudspeaker as a knife grinder & fixing gas stoves has finally been banned from here. Once he has fixed everything he asks a disproportionate price playing on people's ignorance. He's a bit of a magician sending little darts of flames saying how dangerous the escaping gas was. How do I know this? Because I too fell for it but luckily had only €25 on me in cash instead of €125. Just recently a friend paid €200 for changing tiny screws and being a 'man of experience'with his son present decided to pay up for fear of reprisals as the scammer was from Sicily. I said "you were really brave". Though he's banned from here he's free to roam, also doing another trick with car mirrors. Beware !!

 

[nostoneunturned]

My experiences are quite the opposite, apart from being “rippedorf” by The utter let down of Flavell-Inc, to my knowledge I was never fleeced. In fact I was given attentive treatment, welcomed, given advice, comforted and yes sometimes given free stuff without asking; I loved every minute of it. I have a reasonably sharp radar when it comes to smiling thieves but I am interested in any advice any of you guys who are local have too, so spill the beans on any travel tips you may have to avoid future snake oil sales. Taxi haggling?
More than that even the people I met always advised me how to avoid the tricks and traps 🪤 so I was always readyeven if it never happened .

We stopped for a granita in Scicli one morning and got at least an hours worth of ‘specials’ as well as this outstanding ice treat. Loaded up on sugar and caffeine we spent extra on treats to send home, willingly. The treats were not all brilliant but it was hilarious entertainment the lengths the owners of the store went to to sell their wares .

 

[Spirit of place]

@nostoneunturned. Just saw Scicli mentioned - that's Montalbano territory if you've watched the series. Lovely friendly people who go out of their way to help . That's the real Sicilia - And the Baroque of nearby Noto - oddly enough the town where the hustler I mentioned before comes from, though not generally known for its criminal minds.

Adore their home made signs and the pride in showing their products. So authentic

 

[nostoneunturned]

Y

@nostoneunturned. Just saw Scicli mentioned - that's Montalbano territory if you've watched the series. Lovely friendly people who go out of their way to help . That's the real Sicilia - And the Baroque of nearby Noto - oddly enough the town where the hustler I mentioned before comes from, though not generally known for its criminal minds.

Adore their home made signs and the pride in showing their products. So authentic

Yes I don’t recall hearing an English speaking tourist, I’m sure they were there I loved Noto and all of these beautiful Baroque crumbling cities , but @Spirit of place what series do you refer to ?

 

[PlinyinTorquay]

I've been searching for a tv programme I saw a while back about Venice & price fixing for tourists, where they did a sort of candid camera & sent a tourist and a local at different times to a variety of locations to see the difference. And do you know the prices coincided & everyone got a receipt (hidden camera natch) Surprise, surprise with the journalists trying to figure it out and came to the conclusion maybe the city has better check-ups living as it does from 90% tourism.

Hi Spirit , This is interesting. As you might have surmised, a good proportion of my time is spent in Venice, and I would not say I've been ripped off. had an unsatisfactory experience at Harry's Bar once but more because I had a passionate disagreement with an English couple on an adjacent table over Brexit (pro-Brexiteers ) and almost got ejected from the place embarrassingly! I hope I don't sound boastful but I do know the city very well now and know some of the best places to eat, across price ranges. Sometimes one can end up with a meal that is poor value and unsatisfactory and would avoid the menu turistico. I'd love to see this programme if you can find it. xoxo

Y

Yes I don’t recall hearing an English speaking tourist, I’m sure they were there I loved Noto and all of these beautiful Baroque crumbling cities , but @Spirit of place what series do you refer to ?

@nostoneunturned, Spirit is referring to a detective Series, Inspector Montalbano. Set in Sicily. It's certainly aired in the UK. I have an architectural historian friend who loves crime genre who adores this series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Montalbano_(TV_series)

 

[PlinyinTorquay]

I thought I’d share this with you, and it might particularly amuse @Alessandro and @Antonio who have been pulling my leg about my username. Due to my fictitious’fishy’ persona on Tattle my algorithms are completely screwed. Academia.edu is not my chosen medium for publishing papers on the fish industry!

 

[Spirit of place]

@Antonio Buon onomastico - another? with a marchpast in your honour - taken from my window. Shaky images & messy sound but you get the idea

@PlinyinTorquay - you will never get the whiff of fish off you noe - you might as well do a spoof paper on it Hilarious !

 

[PlinyinTorquay]

@Antonio Buon onomastico - another? with a marchpast in your honour - taken from my window. Shaky images & messy sound but you get the idea

@PlinyinTorquay - you will never get the whiff of fish off you noe - you might as well do a spoof paper on it Hilarious !

How many St. Anthonys are there? I'm confused. Just looked it up in The Catholic Encyclopaedia and can find two. St. A. of Padua, which I knew because of the Santo in Padua , and St. Anthony the Great with a Feast Day in January, so is there another? EDIT Just seen a list in Wiki. there are quite a lot!

@Spirit of place a spoof paper on fish might be fun. Am a tad concerned, though .... from Pulcinella to Pachyderm to Pesce ... is this the sign of a versatile intellect or Jack of all trades and master of none? A bit like K. with her many specialisms.

 

[Spirit of place]

I called out to Antonio by mistake - not Saint Antonio but just celebrating it for 3 days again now because he is the patron saint of the village. Yesterday a ballet company came & I realised how great it must be for them to perform to an audience as it was for us to watch them live.

 

[PlinyinTorquay]

I called out to Antonio by mistake - not Saint Antonio but just celebrating it for 3 days again now because he is the patron saint of the village. Yesterday a ballet company came & I realised how great it must be for them to perform to an audience as it was for us to watch them live.

Gottit!

 

[Spirit of place]

@PlinyinTorquay as we are whiling away the time here I was wondering when you mentioned acquisitions - are you submitting suggestions for Quatar to acquire paintings and sculpture? If so, where from, auction houses, other museums, private sellers? With their immense wealth it seems the Emirate States can outbid most other competitors for works they want & it would be interesting to learn how many old masters, sculpture etc have been allowed to leave their country to the highest bidder. However on the plus side I imagine they sponsor touring exhibitions as well.
It's the swing of the pendulum of course - in the past America was able to dominate the market but the time of the predators like Napoleon, Hitler (and don't let's start on Lord Elgin) seems over.
Just snooping really as I see sport, luxury goods, culture etc have all benefited from cash injections and retail from Quatar to keep them afloat.

 

[PlinyinTorquay]

Hello Spirit, I can't be too specific but, yes, some of my recommendations come from auction houses. For example, a private collector is selling a Fragonard (which I saw in Paris) through Sotheby's, so I went there to view that and assess its condition. While I was in Paris there was an annual event taking place - called the Salon du Dessin where lots of dealers are showing their works at the Palais Brongiart (Bourse) the former stock exchange in the 19C. I saw some appealing watercolours with a Swiss dealer. I prefer recommending through auction houses as the associates from my end can be very quixotic and take a long time to make a decision if there isn't an auction deadline involved.

One of the most charming things I saw at Bourse this time but did not recommend was a very delicate drawing by St. Exupery for Le Petit Prince. The best of these are at the Morgan NY I believe (the Morgan and Frick are possibly my two favourite institutions in NYC).

Sometimes we have had export bans put on objects that we've purchased. I can be open about this one as it was featured quite widely in the press. Qatar owns a portrait by William Hoare of the first freed Muslim slaves in England, Job Ben Suleiman. It hangs in the National Portrait Gallery but is the property of Qatar. Qatar will have it next year for an exhibition we're curating in the autumn to coincide with The World Cup.

Here he is. If you scroll down you will see that it belongs to Qatar Museums.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo - National Portrait Gallery

by William Hoare oil on canvas 1733 OM.762. Orientalist Museum, Doha.

www.npg.org.uk

There was a lot of press coverage about it at the time of sale https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-12238237

Here's a short piece I wrote about the painting for Google Art which I don't think has gone live there yet.

OM.762 William Hoare (1707-1792), Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (called Job ben Soloman)

William Hoare demonstrated an early talent and passion for painting and his father placed him under the tutelage of Italian painter Giuseppe Grisoni (1699-1769) who worked briefly in London as a portrait-painter. Hoare additionally studied in Italy for nine years, in Rome under Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) and was also influenced by the accomplished Venetian pastel portraitist, Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757). On returning to England, Hoare set up studio in the fashionable spa town of Bath, where he made a good living; in 1768, he was elected one of the founder members of the Royal Academy. Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (1701-1773), who became the first freed Muslim slave in England, sat for William Hoare in 1733. His portrait was to be used as a prototype for an engraving for the frontispiece of Diallo’s memoirs written by his lawyer Thomas Bluett (1690-1749) which was published in London in 1734 under the ponderous title Some Memoirs of the life of Job, the Son of Soloman, the High Priest of Boonda in Africa, Who was a slave about Two Years in Maryland; and Afterwards Being brought to England, was set Free and sent to his native land in 1734. In this portrait Diallo wears the costume of the Fulbe people of Senegambia, West Africa. Around his neck he carries one of the three Qu’rans that he wrote from memory, a symbol of his piety. Ironically Diallo was himself a slave-trader and had been taken by a raiding party and sold to the owner of a tobacco plantation in Maryland. Diallo’s masters and contemporaries were reputedly impressed by his nobility, serenity and dignity which had not been diminished by captivity. This, together with his slender frame, led to him being released from the severity of field slavery, and he was brought to London whilst still being the property of his master who, by this time, was James Oglethorpe (1696-1785), Director of the Royal African Company. In London, Diallo became a celebrity, meeting Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) founder of the British Museum, for whom Diallo translated Arabic transcriptions on coins. Diallo was also received at Court by George II and Queen Caroline. Thomas Bluett’s memoir was enthusiastically received and went into several editions whilst Diallo became a celebrated case for anti-slavery campaigners which resulted in The Slave Trade Act of 1807, prohibiting slave trade in the British Empire. Diallo returned to his native Gambia in July 1734.


Technical information:
Oil on canvas
H. 76.2;. W. 64.2 cms.


I gave a talk on Curating in the Arabian Gulf for The Art Fund in Leamington Spa in 2016. Earlier this year, I gave a Zoom Lecture to The Art Fund on Clara the Rhinoceros. . https://www.artfund.org/whats-on/events/2016/04/06/curating-in-the-arabian-gulf

If all goes well, I'm hoping to stay here until end 2024 when I will be curating an exhibition on Jean-Leon Gerome. But I'd really like to work for a Private Collection back in London or in Europe. I did a very interesting course, again via Zoom earlier this year, with Christie's London led by a gentleman who manages the collections of Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti.

Thank you so much for showing an interest in my work.

 

[Jerry]

Yogurt pie in Rome; will take this any day over cheesecake

 

[emm]

Yogurt pie in Rome; will take this any day over cheesecake

View attachment 711105

wow I have never heard of this, what is the base? looks yum!

 

[Jerry]

wow I have never heard of this, what is the base? looks yum!

Like a graham cracker; went back two days in a row. Very light.

 

[Denise0211]

Omg...new video later. KAYAK MAKEOVER. Hard pass. See you all next week...lol

 

[PlinyinTorquay]

Omg...new video later. KAYAK MAKEOVER.

@Denise0211. That does not remotely interest me.

 

[emm]

@Denise0211. That does not remotely interest me.

I’m watching out of boredom. Her demeaned is so odd, she spends most of the time talking to camera looking at the floor, she doesn’t seem happy and I am finding the dynamic between them increasingly strained, at one point she asks him when they got the kyack, he says last year (or something, I was hardly paying attention) and she asks no what mese? as if anyone (him included cares). It is so funny hearing the conversation between her and her dad, he has a very strong australian accent, obviously totally different from hers.
She is still claiming that garden party they had was her church wedding

 

[Jerry]

HA

(Tattle won’t allow me to leave a one word response)

 

[Spirit of place]

@PlinyinTorquay how interesting was that. - thanks for taking the time to explain your role and to see an example of a semi-permanent loan which hopefully is the way to go, together with marvellous, themed touring exhibitions lent from various collections bringing much needed revenue to museums. I'm sure your work in Doha has given you international contacts (if not bridesmaids) to continue on your career path.
Now to Kylie - I will watch the video out of curiosity to see how she fits tiles on a kayak and why..2 days ago I was out in a canoe in the sea & realised they would make it uneven in weight & really just ridiculous.
@Jerry. You're certainly on a mission in Italy to try all the food. Btw have you put on any weight since you've been here given all the delish things you post?? There must be alot of gelatine in the yoghurt to make it firm or is it a semi- freddo?
Must stop as I'm writing pages of thread with little or no ref to KF