• Mood: shocked
• Music: TV ad; 'Push a little button...'

Great Day Of Wrath...

The fearsome images of the Japan earthquake and tsunami  are almost  more shocking than  9/11. I guess nobody in our lifetime has every seen the like. Heaven help all those affected. I imagine that even with Japan's preparedness for such events, the death toll is probably going to be pretty high.

Some bits and pieces of my Lille experience, before it fades...

The big draw in the Palais des Baux Arts seemed to be Dirk Bouts' famous  diptych of souls ascending to Heaven/ writhing in Hell.
It was interesting that everyone sort of glanced idly at the parade of the pious approaching paradise, but stood for a while studying the torments of the damned. I guess we all know where we're going. I particularly liked the sad little stick people in the background, being chucked into the tar pit by frisky demons.
I was also much taken by this little study of expressions, but didn't catch the artist's name.

.



Despite the general well-scrubbed tidiness, the re was a strong smell of sewage in many Old Town streets.

I had a diabolo menthe, which I've not had in years. Mmm...