poliphilo

I made jelly last night- for the first time in- what?- twenty, thirty years. I remember when jelly came in rubbery segmented blocks- like see-through chocolate bars; now it comes as crystals- as sparkly dust. There were pictures of cherries on the packet. The finished product tasted of nothing in particular, but looked lovely.

I watched three rather good TV shows last night. The first was an episode of a series, fronted by Richard Rudgeley, called Pagans. It takes the archaeology of the northern European bronze age and makes it sexy. The second was a profile of the photographer David LaChapelle. Ooh, I do like his work! I think he's the Lautrec of the Celebrity Age- and we'll be looking at his images of Pamela Anderson and Donnie Wahlberg long after we've lost interest in them as people. The third was a documentary about an Amish rebel who has been excommunicated by the bishops of his church for reading the Bible in English- instead of the approved- but to most Amish, incomprehensible -seventeenth century German. It's the classic story of a religious elite so fixated on preserving the accidents of their tradition that they have lost touch with its spirit. It was like watching the Reformation being played out all over again- in little.