2013年8月12日 星期一

0813 2013 二 The House That Coco Built







訃聞eric 離校之後 另外世界

今年我們的同學蔡英文 (中研院) 回校演講。他過去公費留學是到英國York大學取得博士學位。
近日我寫York 大學的創校校長Eric John Francis James, Baron James of Rusholme (1909 –1992)傳記。這所大學現有11學院 28個研究中心,與世界288所大學有合作關係。(1970)該大學學生只有3000學生。現在學生數55 千,教職員7千,校友25萬人之多。
http://www.yorku.ca/web/about_yorku/

YY 接到捐款Package 浪費

家族故事 (II) 英國Graham Greene


1977年在英國看到同樓的蘇格蘭朋友的晚餐佐著一本白色封面的企鵝版圖書
我笑問他是什麼好書? 可要分享.....
他說是Graham Greene的小說。
於是,我從Graham Greene's ''End of the Affair''入門….


Graham Greene (1904–1991),


後來,我到90年代中都還在買、讀他的作品,包括他年輕時寫的某貴族之傳記Lord Rochester's Monkey (1939)。


恰巧2004年是他百歲冥誕,在網路上如BBC和紐約時報等處,有許多他的資料和專輯,真是豐富。其實,我應該找機會重讀……
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/greene-centenary.shtml 






Graham Greene 1971年出版他的回憶錄首冊A sort of life   
台灣2006年才有翻譯本黃芳田《小說家的人生》A Sort of Life 台北時報文化.
這本題獻給家族的幸存者 Raymond Greene (書中有些他的信/說法  Wikipedia 有他的簡介) 
Hugh Greene/ Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987)


---他是英國名人曾當過BBC的總經理1960-70  
以及 Elisabeth Dennys 妹妹 1915-1999 親愛的么妹 Human Factor 一書題獻

 Graham Greene 么妹 A Sort of Life1971 《小說家的人生》200...
貼錯地方

山外買詞與文類研究 哲學片段與他大聊台語泉水人多卻流行漳州話....



(麻州劍橋市訊) 今年六月曾經訪台的哈佛名師塔爾班夏哈,在新學期開學前突然宣佈不再教授全球知名的「幸福課」,讓1,400名已經在線上登記選修的學生大失所望。

班夏哈擁有哈佛組織行為博士學位,所開設的「正向心理學」被嫟稱為哈佛的幸福課,每年選修人數超過全校學生的百分之二十,許多人反應這門課「改變了他們的一生」。

如此受歡迎的王牌講師卻堅稱,取消幸福課程的決定是「極度痛苦但正確的」,有鑑於他在訪問台灣期間,親眼目睹一個國家從上到下對「小確幸」的執著與實踐,所形成的集體意志和力量遠遠超出他的預期,只要人民沒有遠高志向,不要有太多想法,好好過小日子,就可以獲至幸福感。

這個經驗讓他瞭解自己對幸福的定義「竟是如此膚淺而象牙塔。」

據班夏哈博士觀察,「小小而確定的幸福感」一詞雖由日本作家村上春樹發明,但真正從生活中去實踐的只有台灣人。台灣式的小確幸具體表現在知足不計較的價值觀,不必知道其它地方在發生什麼事的世界觀,以及吃美食、換手機、短期旅遊等低成本享樂主義上。

哈佛大學董事會對於班夏哈的決定感到震驚,但聽取他的親口報告後全體董事皆啞口無言,無異議通過取消幸福課程。

一位不願公開姓名的董事感嘆:「誰能想到單單靠著大吃大喝、開開咖啡店或B&B (編按:即民宿),就可以讓人忘卻二十餘年薪資不上漲的痛苦挫折?」

另一位曾獲諾貝爾獎的哈佛經濟學家則欣然表示:「東方社會長期以來經濟利得多被資本家、地主及專業經理人壟斷,勞工未分享成果卻仍甘之如飴,台灣人工作時數是全球最長的之一,我們終於瞭解他們是如何辦到的!」

班夏哈博士將接受台北「苦中作樂基金會」邀請,再度來台進行田野研究。他計劃明年秋天在哈佛經濟系開設全新的「小確信」課程,分享台灣成功經驗。

相關新聞:福斯國際電視網首部自製偶像劇*《幸福街第3號出口》*將於2013年7月殺青,在衛視中文台播出,預計將創造10以上的幸福收視率。
· · · 22分鐘前 ·

走進可可·香奈兒的舊居


Gabriela Plump for The New York Times

在法國里維埃拉的羅屈埃布蘭卡馬爾坦,一座名叫「La Pausa」的宅邸中,縈繞着兩個女人的靈魂——一個來自法國,一個來自美國。她們兩人都是白手起家,身材消瘦,野心勃勃而又難以伺候,也都很富有,很優 雅,很善於社交,在上流社會裡越爬越高。她們都曾經在「La Pausa」招待客人。這棟別墅坐落在高山之上,俯瞰着地中海,佔地1萬平方英尺,既有足夠的僕人,也有十足的格調。
  • 檢視大圖 躺在「La Pausa」別墅床上的可可·香奈兒,當時她的好友讓·戈德布斯基和他的妹妹米米·戈德布斯卡正到此拜訪她。
    Roger Schall
    躺在「La Pausa」別墅床上的可可·香奈兒,當時她的好友讓·戈德布斯基和他的妹妹米米·戈德布斯卡正到此拜訪她。
  • 檢視大圖 自左至右:由讓·谷克多創作的裝裱畫;可可的電動按鍵呼叫板,會在需要時閃光提示僕人前去需要他們服務的地方。
    Gabriela Plump for The New York Times
    自左至右:由讓·谷克多創作的裝裱畫;可可的電動按鍵呼叫板,會在需要時閃光提示僕人前去需要他們服務的地方。
  • 檢視大圖 左下方起順時針方向:利弗斯收藏的皮毛圍巾;與丈夫埃莫里·利弗斯在一起;與溫斯頓·丘吉爾的合照。
    Gabriela Plump for The New York Times
    左下方起順時針方向:利弗斯收藏的皮毛圍巾;與丈夫埃莫里·利弗斯在一起;與溫斯頓·丘吉爾的合照。

那個法國女人是可可·香奈兒(Coco Chanel)。她在20世紀20年代後期建造了」La Pausa」,耗資1800萬法郎,這在當時是個天文數字。當時指導她的,是她的情人、第二代威斯敏斯特公爵(Duke of Westminster)休·理乍得·阿瑟·格洛斯芬諾(Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor),以及當時一名年僅20多歲的建築師羅伯特·斯特萊茨(Robert Streitz)。
那個美國人則是溫迪·利弗斯(Wendy Reves),一位前模特。她的第三任丈夫埃莫里(Emery)是一位出生在匈牙利的文學經紀人、作家、出版人、藝術收藏家兼金融家,他於1953年買下 了」La Pausa」。可可在威斯敏斯特公爵去世之後不願意再在那裡度日,就決定賣掉這座宅邸。而溫迪則在1981年埃莫里·利弗斯去世後繼續留在了那裡。到她 2007年去世時,這座宅子便定格在了時光中,被嚴密地封存了起來。
如今,」La Pausa」標價4000萬歐元出售——約合5200萬美元,這裡近兩年來的第二次。(它在2011年曾經由蘇富比拍賣行[Sotheby』s]投入市 場,但之後那年卻因為未決的訴訟而被撤了下來。如今官司問題已經得到調解,倫敦的萊坊房地產經紀公司[Knight Frank]於5月初再次將它擺上市場)。
這一次的出售由一位在美國接受教育的荷蘭人皮耶特·范·納 爾特維克(Pieter Van Naeltwijck)負責,他是備受電影明星和俄羅斯寡頭青睞的房產經紀,在里維埃拉頗有名氣。他開着一輛新的賓利在藍色海岸一帶出沒——這輛車剛剛以 30萬美元購入,是他的汽車收藏里最新的一輛。他會說起曾經用直升飛機接載安吉麗娜·茱莉(Angelina Jolie)去看法國南部的宅邸,或者在夏天為林戈·斯塔(Ringo Starr)艱難地尋找出租的房子。上個月,他邀請我去參觀「La Pausa」,我進而邀請了朋友,法國駐摩納哥大使雨果·莫雷(Hugues Moret)同行。
這座宅子的靈感來源於可可的過去。質樸的石階從入口大廳盤 旋而上;庭院四周圍繞着用柱子裝飾的迴廊;門和窗上的拱頂全都是以她從小長大的12世紀修道院孤兒所為模型建造的。房子的設計也在向香奈兒5號香水 (Chanel No. 5)致敬,由5個窗戶組成的圖案在整個宅子各個地方反覆地出現。可可和公爵大人希望所有的一切都用最好的材料建造。她指定用手工製作超過20000塊弧形 瓦片,用於建造房頂,並用稀疏的白色和米色色塊來裝點房子。每一間浴室都有一個僕人專用入口,這樣人就可以一邊泡澡,另一邊則有人把衣服拿去清洗和熨壓而 不會造成打擾。
她將宅邸命名為「La Pausa」是源於一個傳說,在耶穌十字架受難之後,抹大拉的瑪利亞從耶路薩冷逃離時曾在這裡附近的一棵橄欖樹下歇息。「La Pausa」指的就是一個有人在此「停歇(pause)」的地方。(2007年,香奈兒的香水設計大師賈克·波巨[Jacques Polge]創造出了一種以鳶尾花為底基的粉末狀香熏,名為「法式別墅28號」[28 La Pausa],是他創作的香奈兒「珍藏香水系列[Les Exclusifs]」的一部分)。可可引進了古老的橄欖樹,並且種植了「一片一片的橘子樹叢,滿坡的熏衣草,大片的紫色鳶尾花以及大片密集的薔薇,」美 國版《Vogue》在1930年就曾這樣描寫過這座宅子。這本雜誌還稱「La Pausa」是「地中海岸邊所建造過的最令人迷醉的別墅」。
那裡有一個老舊的網球場,但是在這個佔地六畝的府邸中,卻沒有一個泳池。「可可·香奈兒和溫迪·利弗斯都不喜歡游泳,」萊坊公司摩洛哥辦事處的房產經紀人弗朗索瓦·德·布魯恩(François de Bruyne)說。
在花園裡,我沒有見到任何鳶尾花,不過可可的橄欖樹仍然在 那裡。一幅屬於她的線描畫也還在,裝裱在其中一間起居室里。那是讓·谷克多(Jean Cocteau)創作的,在1952年10月獻給了她,如今卻似乎已被遺忘和遺棄。還有她那些大得可裝得進人的橡木衣櫥也都還在。(利弗斯夫婦改變了室內 的裝潢,但是建築的原始結構,以及它的七個卧室、三個客廳、一個飯廳、兩個廚房還有僕人宿舍等架構,都基本保留了原樣)。
我所能到達的最能讓我貼近可可的地方,就是那些僕人電動按 鍵呼叫裝置,當某個房間需要僕人的時候,那個電鈕就會亮起提醒僕人。左上角的是對應香奈兒女士卧室和浴室的兩盞燈。可可的房子里擠滿了像伊戈爾·斯特拉文 斯基(Igor Stravinsky)、巴勃羅·畢加索(Pablo Picasso)、保羅·艾裡布(Paul Iribe)、薩爾瓦多·達利(Salvador Dalí)和盧齊諾·維斯康蒂(Luchino Visconti)這樣的藝術人士。埃莫里和溫迪的賓客名單同樣閃耀,卻是另一番興味;到訪的人之中包括了諾維·考沃(Noël Coward)、葛麗泰·嘉寶(Greta Garbo)、埃羅爾·弗林(Errol Flynn)、克拉克·蓋博(Clark Gable)、雷尼爾王子(Prince Rainier)和格蕾絲王妃(Princess Grace),以及亞里斯多德·奧納西斯(Aristotle Onassis)等。溫斯頓·丘吉爾爵士(Sir Winston Churchill)則是兩位女士的座上賓,不過他在利弗斯夫婦買下這座宅子之後來得要頻繁得多,並且一來就會住上幾個月,在這裡畫畫(埃莫里·利弗斯是 丘吉爾的海外著作經紀人和出版人)。
如果說可可喜愛的是簡約和優雅,那溫迪喜愛的就是華麗與繽 紛。當人們把「La Pausa」稱作可可·香奈兒的宅子時,溫迪會怒髮衝冠。「她總是會說,『這是我的宅子,不再是可可·香奈兒的房子,』」如今86歲仍在繼續管理這座宅邸 的管家伊麗安·布蘭克(Eliane Blanc)說,「『別再提可可·香奈兒了。』」20世紀80年代中期,溫迪把她和埃莫里一起收藏的藝術品(包括一些羅丹[Rodin]的雕塑和塞尚 [Cezanne]、雷諾瓦[Renoir]、高更[Gauguin]、梵·高[Van Gogh]、畢沙羅[Pissarro]、修拉[Seurat]、馬奈[Manet]和莫奈[Monet]等人的畫作,總值數億美元)都捐獻給了達拉斯藝 術博物館(Dallas Museum of Art),博物館也照「La Pausa」的樣子複製了好幾個房間來擺放這些作品。
留在房子里的是溫迪收藏的許多物品:俄羅斯聖像、陶瓷盤 子、水晶香水瓶、心形玻璃、古董太陽眼鏡、皮帶扣、貝殼、浮雕、畫扇、德州紀念品、繡花枕頭(上面寫着各種字句,比如「好女孩上天堂,壞女孩走四方」和 「富貴需要花費」等)。溫迪還喜歡豹紋,於是整個房子里都有各種(似乎全都是假的)豹皮地毯、枕頭、襯墊沙發和抱枕等等。在其中一間客廳的一張邊桌上,一 個瓷器杯子里放着幾根有濾嘴的香煙。她的黑色蕾絲晨袍正掛在她浴室旁邊的衣帽間里。她的皮毛圍巾有一個專用的衣櫥。「每一樣東西都和她去世時留下的一模一 樣,」德·布魯恩說。
不過這些家居擺設不會跟房子一起出售。它們最終的歸宿仍然 未知。那買下「La Pausa」的將會是誰呢?好幾個俄羅斯富豪都表達了興趣,有一個還想將宅子改造成一家餐廳。不過這裡是住宅區,而且有區域限制的規定。可以預見,要成立 一個非營利機構,比如一家博物館或者基金會之類的,都會需要從市政當局和法國政府那裡獲得批准。
法國大使莫雷被「La Pausa」的歷史地位所震撼,他建議香奈兒公司可以行動起來參與維護它。「這是法國歷史遺產的一部分,」他說,「我們必須想辦法將它保存在家族的手中。」
新的主人將需要給它安裝中央空調、新的供熱和電力系統、新 的流水管道、新的窗戶,一個現代化的廚房和現代浴室,一個游泳池和池畔小屋。通往宅子的路和石階都需要維修,花園也需要造景布置。甚至萊坊的彩色物業手冊 上也承認,「La Pausa」並不意味着完美。「這座別墅,」它說,「正需要一些現代化改造和更新。」
范·納爾特維克則說得更直接。「對一個有錢人來說,它是很好的,」他說,「它需要你給它一切。」
本文最初發表於2013年6月7日的T Magazine。
翻譯:邵智傑




Letter From Paris | The House That Coco Built


Gabriela Plump for The New York Times
The ghosts of two women — one French, one American — haunt the villa called La Pausa in Roquebrune-cap-Martin, on the French Riviera. Both were self-made, rail thin, high maintenance, ambitious, wealthy, elegant, social and social-climbing. They used La Pausa, a 10,000-square-foot house high on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean, to entertain with an abundance of servants and style.
  • 檢視大圖 Coco Chanel in bed at La Pausa while visited by her friend Jean Godebski and his sister Mimie Godebska Blacque-Belair.
    Roger Schall
    Coco Chanel in bed at La Pausa while visited by her friend Jean Godebski and his sister Mimie Godebska Blacque-Belair.
  • 檢視大圖 From left: a framed illustration by Jean Cocteau; Coco's electric call button board, which would flash to let servants know when and where they were needed.
    Gabriela Plump for The New York Times
    From left: a framed illustration by Jean Cocteau; Coco's electric call button board, which would flash to let servants know when and where they were needed.
  • 檢視大圖 Clockwise from bottom left: Reves's collection of boas; with her husband Emery Reves; with Winston Churchill.
    Gabriela Plump for The New York Times
    Clockwise from bottom left: Reves's collection of boas; with her husband Emery Reves; with Winston Churchill.

The Frenchwoman was Coco Chanel. She built La Pausa in the late 1920s for 1.8 million francs, a fabulous sum at the time. She was guided by her lover, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster, and Robert Streitz, an architect still in his 20s.
The American was Wendy Reves, an ex-model whose third husband, Emery, a Hungarian-born literary agent, writer, publisher, art collector and financier, bought La Pausa in 1953. Coco decided to sell the house after the Duke of Westminster died and she lost the will to spend time there. When Emery Reves died in 1981, Wendy stayed on. After her death in 2007, the house was frozen in time and shut tight.
Now La Pausa is for sale for 40 million euros — about $52 million — for the second time in two years. (It was put on the market by Sotheby’s in 2011 but pulled off the following year because of pending litigation. The legal issues have been ironed out, and the London-based firm Knight Frank put it back on the market in early May.)
Pieter Van Naeltwijck, an American-educated Dutchman who has become famous along the French Riviera as the preferred realtor of movie stars and Russian oligarchs, is in charge of the sale. He drives around the Côte d’Azur in a new Bentley — the latest addition to his car collection — that he just bought for about $300,000. He talks about ferrying Angelina Jolie via helicopter to see properties in southern France and the challenge of finding a summer rental for Ringo Starr. Last month, he invited me to tour La Pausa. I in turn invited my friend Hugues Moret, who is France’s ambassador to Monaco.
The house draws its inspiration from Coco’s past. The austere stone staircase curving up from the main entrance hall; the pillared cloister enclosing the courtyard; the arches framing doors and windows — all are modeled on the 12th-century convent-orphanage where she was raised. The design also pays tribute to Chanel No. 5 with patterns of five windows repeated throughout the house. Coco and the Duke wanted everything to be built with the finest materials. She ordered more than 20,000 curved tiles to be handmade for the roof, and furnished the house sparsely in shades of white and beige. Each bathroom has a servant’s entrance so that one’s bath can be drawn and one’s clothes taken away for cleaning and pressing without any disturbance.
She named it La Pausa after the legend that Mary Magdalene rested near here under the olive trees on her flight from Jerusalem after Jesus’s Crucifixion. La Pausa refers to the place where one “pauses.” (In 2007, Chanel’s master perfumer Jacques Polge created a powdery, iris-based scent called 28 La Pausa as part of his “Les Exclusifs” collection.) Coco brought in ancient olive trees and planted “groves of orange trees, great slopes of lavender, masses of purple iris, and huge clusters of climbing roses,” American Vogue wrote about the house in 1930. The magazine declared La Pausa “one of the most enchanting villas that ever materialized on the shores of the Mediterranean.”
There is an old tennis court but no swimming pool on the six-acre plot. “Neither Coco Chanel nor Wendy Reves liked swimming,” said François de Bruyne, a realtor in Knight Frank’s Monaco office.
I didn’t see any irises in the gardens, but Coco’s olive trees are still there. So is a framed line drawing of her in one of the sitting rooms by Jean Cocteau, which he dedicated to her in October 1952 — apparently forgotten and left behind. So are her walk-in oak clothes closets. (The Reveses changed the décor but left the original structure of the building and its seven bedrooms, three living rooms, dining room, two kitchens and staff quarters essentially unchanged.)
The closest I got to Coco were the electric call button servant stations that alerted servants with a lit-up button when they were needed in one of the rooms. In the top left-hand corner were lights for Mademoiselle’s bedroom and Mademoiselle’s bath. Coco filled the house with artistic types like Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Paul Iribe, Salvador Dalí and Luchino Visconti. Emery and Wendy Reves’s guest list was flashy in a different way; Noël Coward, Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace and Aristotle Onassis were among those who visited. Sir Winston Churchill was a guest of both women, although he came much more frequently and stayed for months at a time to paint after the Reveses bought the house. (Emery Reves was Churchill’s overseas literary agent and publisher.)
If Coco loved simplicity and elegance, Wendy loved flamboyance and clutter. She bristled when others referred to La Pausa as Coco Chanel’s house. “She would always say, ‘This is my house. This is no longer the house of Coco Chanel,’” said Eliane Blanc, the 86-year-old housekeeper who continues to look after the house today. “‘Stop with Coco Chanel.’” In the mid-1980s, Wendy donated the artworks she had collected with Emery (including sculptures by Rodin and paintings by Cezanne, Renoir, Bonnard, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Seurat, Manet and Monet worth hundreds of millions of dollars) to the Dallas Museum of Art, which recreated several rooms from La Pausa to house them.
What is left are Wendy’s many collections of things: Russian icons, porcelain plates, crystal perfume bottles, glass hearts, vintage sunglasses, belt buckles, seashells, cameos, painted fans, soup tureens, vases, antique horn hair combs, twig baskets in the shape of ducks, Texas memorabilia, needlepoint pillows (with messages like “Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere” and “It’s Expensive to Be Rich”). Wendy also loved leopard prints, so there are rugs, pillows, upholstered chairs and throws in leopard skin (all seem fake) throughout the house. A handful of her filtered cigarettes sit in a china cup on a side table in one of the drawing rooms. Her black lace peignoir hangs in the dressing room off her bathroom. Her feather boas have a closet of their own. “Everything is exactly the same was it was when she died,” de Bruyne said.
But the furnishings do not come with the house. Their ultimate destination is unknown. So who will buy La Pausa? Several wealthy Russians have expressed interest. One wanted to turn the house into a restaurant. But this is a residential area, and there are zoning restrictions. Presumably a nonprofit organization like a museum or foundation would require permissions from the municipality and the French state.
Moret, the French ambassador, was struck by the historical importance of La Pausa and suggested that Chanel could move to preserve it. “This is part of France’s heritage,” he said. “We have to find a way to keep it in the family.”
A new owner would have to install central air-conditioning, a new heating and electrical system, new plumbing, new windows, a modern kitchen and modern baths, a swimming pool and pool house. The road and the stone steps leading to the house need repairing. The garden needs landscaping. Even Knight Frank’s color brochure on the property admits La Pausa does not mean perfection. “The villa,” it says, “is in need of some modernization and updating.”
Van Naeltwijck is more direct. “It would be wonderful for someone with money,” he said. “It needs everything.”

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