It's a Classical Life

  In the last one hundred years we have become very good at entertaining ourselves purely for entertainment's sake ( this , by the way, is a really interesting article on the history of mass entertainment if you get the chance to read it). We look at ways to "escape the everyday" through the pure consumption of entertainment - television, movies, music, and more recently, the internet and social media. This amazes me because over the last one hundred years we seem to be more time poor than ever before. So the precious time we do have is spent on consuming entertainment.  Wouldn't it be great if during our entertainment time we were also improving ourselves, learning something new or taking the first steps to creating something ourselves? Wouldn't it be wonderful if all content creators also had the same goal in mind as our friend, German composer Handel- to improve the lives of the consumers? (Click here to hear my favourite Handel piece). Unfortunately not all d...

When we look at fine art, we are given a number of opportunities. We can simply appreciate the work, its lines and colours, the way it makes us feel. When I write an Artist Spotlight post, however I like to look for artists that inspire me and my values. How can I look at art and recreate the images, or the feelings, the actions, in my own life? What is it about a piece that inspires me, or that speaks to my soul?  Last week, I was looking through some of my favourite artists, wondering which one to use for this week's spotlight, but I decided to use French impressionist artist, Victor Gilbert - someone I don't actually know anything about. HIs paintings, though, were so appealing to me that I wanted to learn more. That's what I love about what I do here, I get to learn right along with you! The images have come from a variety of sources (listed at the end of this post).  Victor Gabriel Gilbert was a French painter belonging to the Impressionist movement. M...

  Hello and welcome to It’s a Classical Life!  If this is your first time here, my name is Kirsty and I’m so glad you’re here to talk about all things classic, from the Ancient Greeks and Romans right up to the present day. We can draw our inspiration from classic literature, style, music and more so join us as we bring some timeless and enduring culture into our everyday lives. You may wonder, why study the classics? For me, studying the classics is part of a bigger whole – to be a lifelong learner. I am a trained History and World Languages teacher (ESL, Italian and Spanish) and have spent fifteen years studying and teaching topics I love from kindergarten to grade 12. In these days of our internet knowledge and ability to search for quick answers, becoming a lifelong learner is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and to your children. I can always tell those students who have grown up reading widely and reading well!  To be able to understand and assess how tho...

The summer and Christmas holidays have continued to be a disappointment. Although the weather is mild and the air is beautifully clear and crisp, we are still isolated from friends and family living on the other side of the border. I miss them. I missed being with my parents, sisters and nieces and nephews for Christmas. I missed the big, loud, exhausting days of Christmas time spent together. The year we all couldn't wait to end still seems to be hanging on, even though the calendar has ticked over to January.  I have been relying on some old favourites to help with this isolation-induced sadness, turning to classical pursuits that I know will bolster my spirits and give me hope for a kinder, gentler future: reading, writing, listening to Podcasts and classical music.  Classical music continues to move, inspire, transport, relax and invigorate. As the world continues to tilt on its rather dangerous and precarious axis, as we have seen in recent days (and months) around the wo...

  This summer I have decided to focus a little bit on Ancient Greece in my blog posts. First up, I thought I would give an introduction, just to set the scene. I’ve used a number of sources for this information; see the end of the post for a full resource list. If you already have a sound background on this time period, feel free to skip the following overview. If not, I suggest you do read as knowing the cultural and historical context in which a writer is writing will add to not only your understanding of the themes and style of writing, but also help with your critical analysis of the work.  There are many resources available today for the beginning student of Ancient Greece, some of them good, some of them not. I won’t try and recreate a whole unit of study on Ancient Greece here at this stage (though I may do in the future 😊) because for the self-educated student, working through a variety of sources is the best way to learn. What I will do is guide you through a brief i...

  At the moment my Instagram is filled with the lovely wintery snaps of books and Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. Many of my favourite Bookstagrammers are from the North, but I am also seeing my favourite Australian Instagrammers sharing summer shots, garden shots and brilliant blue skies.  We are definitely entering summer and there is no denying that; I wanted to write a summer reading list, but really these books are such classics and can be read at any time of the year. Most of these books are on my summer reading list. I can't wait for the holidays to really begin on the 18th, when we can get away for a few days and begin the long, hot, break with rest, family and relaxation.  Here is my list for classical reading this summer. There are only 5 classics on the list, because summer should be full of other things as well!! 1. A Mid-Summer's Night Dream, William Shakespeare. I studied this play in high school drama class and I'm really keen to revisit it again th...

I'm a bit of a fussy reader sometimes. I don't do very well in Book Clubs because I don't really like to be told what to read, when. When the mood takes me for a story, or a place, or a character, I reach for those books - and often I'll binge on them until my desire is sated. This is particularly true for Agatha Christie books, Montalbano books, Sherlock Holmes and so on. Reading books like this with strong characters or place/time settings can lead me to look for other books along the same lines.  I read through these books quite quickly and then move on to the next one straight away. I would like to spend more time thoughtfully contemplating each book, and perhaps being mindful of what I have read. Did I like it? Why? Why not? What do I think the author was trying to say with this book? Was it purely entertainment or is there some deeper message? This is very much in-line with a classical education, read the facts first, analyse what has been read, offer an opinion/e...