Dance of Death – The  Seventh Seal

“…to dance beneath the diamond sky…”

This  image has suggested  the end of  “The Seventh Seal”  a  film written and directed by  Ingmar Bergman in 1957, a great  allegory of man’s search for meaning.

It deals with the journey of a medieval knight across 14th century Sweden and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death who has come to take his life.

The final scene shows a group of people ( the knight and his followers) being led away over the hills in a solemn dance of death.

On 25 October 1938, Archbishop Francis Joseph Beckman (1875 –1948), American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Dubuque, condemned swing music as “a degenerated musical system, turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fibre of young people.”
Before the National Council of Catholic Women, he proclaimed that swing music was going to ruin young people and send them down the “primrose path to Hell”.

In addition to the clergy, even some music critics were attacking it because in their opinion that disgusting “dance craze” was a degeneration of music.

Swing music, or simply swing, is a form of popular jazz music developed in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.
Even though its beginning is hard to identify, the word ‘swing’ appears in the title of a famous composition by Duke Ellington (1931) called “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That…

In the faint, pre-dawn

We are observing magic

As the sun rises

Cities appear from shadows

Life draws a collective breath

©2019 Annette Rochelle Aben

Mongolian Beef With Noodles is made with steak, carrots, broccoli, garlic and Ramen Noodles tossed in a delicious sauce and topped off with toasted sesame seeds. This is a quick and easy meal that I absolutely loved!

Another cooking class recipe by

Chef Christal Jakopak. Like the other

class food pictures, not the best quality

pictures but the class moves fast and

pictures are taken even faster.

Ingredients

Break the noodles into small pieces

then prepare the noodles according to

the package, discarding the seasonings.

Drain and set aside.

In a large skillet over medium

heat add vegetable oil.

Toss the steak with the cornstarch.

Once the oil is hot, add the steak strips.

Cook the steak, slightly under cooking.

Turn the steak over browning both sides.

Push the steak to the outer edge

and add the garlic, cooking a minute

until you can smell the garlic.

Transfer to a…

Sometimes pain doesn’t leave us

And sometimes we don’t let it escape

Often in this run and chase

We lose ourselves in this maze

Called ambiguity of pain

© Sakshi Gangwani

I have a memory from when I was very young that sticks with me and  pops into my mind every couple of weeks. I give into the memory every couple of years. A plate of melted old cheddar cheese, not that healthy a thing. The memory is of my mother making melted cheese for my brother Doug and I. She did it over the wood stove. She cut a cube of cheese, opened the lid of the fire box of the stove. Holding the cube of cheese in the flames with a fork until it was melted and crispy on the outside. It is a memory that bring a smile and gives me a nice feeling.  I can’t duplicate exactly what she did so I have had to do something similar to satisfy my memory craving. I grate about a cup and a half of old cheddar cheese and spread…