It was All Saints Day here, or Hallow-mas/All Hallows
(November 1st), which seemed appropriate with all the synchronicities I've been having lately.
It was also Melbourne Cup Day here in Australia, which is almost like a national holiday here.
It's the running of Australia's most famous horse race, which is held every year on the first Tuesday in November (which this year happens to also be All Saints Day).
Oddly enough, it was won by the French, with a French jockey who had only flown out to Australia 24 hours before the race.
You could almost say he spent midnight in Paris;-)
It was the closest finish in the cups 151 year history.
Horses and their owners make the 'pilgrimage' from all over the world to try and take the cup back home with them.
Which leads me into the main topic I wanted to talk about - pilgrimages.
As I have stated in previous posts, I just started reading
It was also Melbourne Cup Day here in Australia, which is almost like a national holiday here.
It's the running of Australia's most famous horse race, which is held every year on the first Tuesday in November (which this year happens to also be All Saints Day).
Oddly enough, it was won by the French, with a French jockey who had only flown out to Australia 24 hours before the race.
You could almost say he spent midnight in Paris;-)
 |
| #3 Dunaden just beats #12 Red Cadeaux in the Melbourne Cup |
Horses and their owners make the 'pilgrimage' from all over the world to try and take the cup back home with them.
Which leads me into the main topic I wanted to talk about - pilgrimages.
As I have stated in previous posts, I just started reading
Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage.
But I have had a lot of pilgrimage type 'coincidences' hit me in the last few days from lots of different angles.
So, where do I begin to untangle this increasingly complicated bunch of coincidences???
I'll start from here,
Bob Dylan and Byron Bay
although it's not really a starting point, but it will have to do.
In that post I talked about going to see a talk by filmmakers
But I have had a lot of pilgrimage type 'coincidences' hit me in the last few days from lots of different angles.
So, where do I begin to untangle this increasingly complicated bunch of coincidences???
I'll start from here,
Bob Dylan and Byron Bay
although it's not really a starting point, but it will have to do.
In that post I talked about going to see a talk by filmmakers
Gillian Armstrong and Paul Cox called
If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words.
It was about their frustrations making movies in Hollywood and having to jump through hoops for money hungry producers mainly, but it was also about Paul's recent illness (cancer and a liver transplant ... the subject of his latest book).
I was intrigued by the liver transplant story and decided to get a copy of Paul's book and get him to sign it a the signing tent, and maybe have a few words with him, but he never showed up at the signing tent ... but that's OK, because as fate would have it I got to talk to another author about her book ... but that's for another post in the future, maybe?
Anyway, I've just finished reading Paul's book about a week ago and I highly recommend it to anyone.
It is a great book, and far from being the grim book that you would expect, it is a celebration of the miracle of life.
Not only does he tell about his physical and psychological life and death struggles with cancer and the liver transplant, he also discuses his films and the people important to his life over the years.
People like Theo van Gogh a dutch film director and great grandson of Theo van Gogh, the brother of Vincent, the great Dutch painter.
Theo was killed ... and get this ... I only just looked this up on Wikipedia ... on November 2nd (that's today folks! ... do these synchs ever stop?) by Muslim fundamentalists in Holland.
Paul and Theo met after seeing Paul's film Vincent, and became close friends afterwards.
The entire film is narration of Van Gogh's words, in letters written to his brother.
Interspersed with countless images of Van Gogh's original work, are cinematic images of the landscapes, the still-lifes, the town, and the people that Van Gogh knew so well.
Cox unassumingly uses real people and costumes in an almost dream-like fashion; they exist along the edges of the film, in a sort of blur; as if we were living directly in Van Gogh's dreams and memories.
And if you watch that first You Tube video above, you will notice in Vincent's letter to his brother all the talk about pilgrims walking along the path of life, basically.
Also notice the Midnight in Paris poster and the link to van Gogh with the Starry Night painting used as a backdrop in the poster, although whilst it is a picture of the French sky over
Arles, it is not of the Paris sky.
Paul also reminisces about his close friendship with filmmaker Werner Herzog who starred in his movie Man of Flowers and whose film Cave of Forgotten Dreams I saw and wrote about a few days ago here in the link below,
The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Werner also made a short film called Pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage is essentially a series of shots of separate sets of pilgrims heading towards an undisclosed destination, set to music.
There is also a documentary called On Borrowed Time made by a local filmmaker named David Bradbury, about Paul's liver transplant.
David has made some great docos in the past, but I take it that Paul wasn't too happy for some reason with David's film.
He barely mentions the film in his book, and didn't seem to speak too highly of it at the Writers Festival.
I haven't seen it yet, but have just purchased a ticket on one of the only two Brisbane screenings at the
If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words.
It was about their frustrations making movies in Hollywood and having to jump through hoops for money hungry producers mainly, but it was also about Paul's recent illness (cancer and a liver transplant ... the subject of his latest book).
 |
| Paul Cox: Tales from the Cancer Ward |
Anyway, I've just finished reading Paul's book about a week ago and I highly recommend it to anyone.
It is a great book, and far from being the grim book that you would expect, it is a celebration of the miracle of life.
Not only does he tell about his physical and psychological life and death struggles with cancer and the liver transplant, he also discuses his films and the people important to his life over the years.
People like Theo van Gogh a dutch film director and great grandson of Theo van Gogh, the brother of Vincent, the great Dutch painter.
Theo was killed ... and get this ... I only just looked this up on Wikipedia ... on November 2nd (that's today folks! ... do these synchs ever stop?) by Muslim fundamentalists in Holland.
Paul and Theo met after seeing Paul's film Vincent, and became close friends afterwards.
Interspersed with countless images of Van Gogh's original work, are cinematic images of the landscapes, the still-lifes, the town, and the people that Van Gogh knew so well.
Cox unassumingly uses real people and costumes in an almost dream-like fashion; they exist along the edges of the film, in a sort of blur; as if we were living directly in Van Gogh's dreams and memories.
And if you watch that first You Tube video above, you will notice in Vincent's letter to his brother all the talk about pilgrims walking along the path of life, basically.
Also notice the Midnight in Paris poster and the link to van Gogh with the Starry Night painting used as a backdrop in the poster, although whilst it is a picture of the French sky over
Arles, it is not of the Paris sky.
Paul also reminisces about his close friendship with filmmaker Werner Herzog who starred in his movie Man of Flowers and whose film Cave of Forgotten Dreams I saw and wrote about a few days ago here in the link below,
The Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Pilgrimage is essentially a series of shots of separate sets of pilgrims heading towards an undisclosed destination, set to music.
David has made some great docos in the past, but I take it that Paul wasn't too happy for some reason with David's film.
He barely mentions the film in his book, and didn't seem to speak too highly of it at the Writers Festival.
I haven't seen it yet, but have just purchased a ticket on one of the only two Brisbane screenings at the
Brisbane International Film Festival, where David will be available for Q&A after the screening.
Another coincidence?
I will be writing more about the pilgrimage synchs in upcoming posts, because these are important pieces in the puzzle to fit together later.
I'm just laying them on the table for now.
PS. I started writing this post just before midnight Nov 1st and just finished it off now Nov 2nd in case there was any confusion about the above mentioned dates.
Cheers.
Also, I just noticed something amusing after posting this stuff, that the hot favourite for The Melbourne Cup was horse #1 "American" (last year's winner ... although it is owned by the French, anyway), but like in the film Midnight in Paris, the French won out in the end;-)
Another coincidence?
I will be writing more about the pilgrimage synchs in upcoming posts, because these are important pieces in the puzzle to fit together later.
I'm just laying them on the table for now.
PS. I started writing this post just before midnight Nov 1st and just finished it off now Nov 2nd in case there was any confusion about the above mentioned dates.
Cheers.
Also, I just noticed something amusing after posting this stuff, that the hot favourite for The Melbourne Cup was horse #1 "American" (last year's winner ... although it is owned by the French, anyway), but like in the film Midnight in Paris, the French won out in the end;-)
Wow! How do you keep track of all these synchros? How does your wife keep track of YOU? Van Gogh must be going thru a resurgence. New book in U.S. just released about him.
ReplyDeleteIt's becoming quite hard to keep up with all these syncs,but this blog is my way of trying to document them in a way that can help me down the track.It's my way of spreading the pieces of the puzzle on the table,so I can see what links to what.
ReplyDeleteThere is still a lot more,I am yet to lay down on the tabletop.But I find as I do more pieces come out of nowhere,and the puzzle gets bigger.
But I'm doing the best I can at the moment.
It's fun,but at the same time frustrating.
I was going to say something similar to Trish & Rob - what a lot of synchros. Good idea to put them on a blog though as it's so easy to forget some of them, or parts of them. Life is a puzzle at times, but sometimes the jigsaw pieces fit.
ReplyDeletescanning your blog here the Darren,,, wonderin,, you know what's, so significant about the 8th day of April,, beyond ole simple simon synchros with it....????
ReplyDeleteRe:
ReplyDelete"What's,so significant about the 8th day of April?"
You probably should have placed this comment under the "Animal Dreaming" post,where I tried to explain what it means to me (and me only),that my father was born on April 8th,1930...the same day that the Brisbane City Hall was officially opened.His mother (my Nana) also died on the 8th of April.So in my personal life that date has a lot of synchronistic value...but to you it probably means nothing.
This blog is just a way of keeping track of my synchronicities and thoughts,before they evaporate like last night's dreams that I have difficulty recalling,as time marches on.
I got the idea and encouragement from blogs like Mike Clellend's "Hidden Experience"
http://hiddenexperience.blogspot.com/
and Christopher Knowles's blog "The Secret Sun"
http://secretsun.blogspot.com/
both good blogs,I think.