From speed-crazed Italians on narrow roads to traffic control by mutually assumed telepathy, driving can make foreign travel a white-knuckle adventure.
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June 25, 2012
With all the excitement of the Olympic games, you might have missed hearing about the premier of “Marco Polo,” performed at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing. It was a virtuoso ballet, orchestrated in a choreography of,” fearsome energy,” based on his journeys.
It’s no wonder the Chinese love Marco.
According to Polo's 1298 book, “The Travels of Marco Polo,” he was the original Indiana Jones. He implied the civilization of the West was second rate. China, by contrast, was a country where paper had already been invented, books of philosophy could be found, a large encyclopedia had been printed; it was simply far richer in goods, services, and technology than anything in Europe.
Rather than taking offense at Polo's comparison, Westerners embraced it as a romantic fantasy and made it Europe's most popular book. Due, perhaps, to such lavish details as Polo's description of China's Kublai Khan as a mythic leader, a chivalrous "Lord of Lords" who employed 10,000 falconers, 20,000 dog handlers and hosted banquets with 40,000 guests.
The catering bill must have been something.
In 1324, as Polo lay on his deathbed, a priest implored him to retract his "fables." His reply: "I have not told half of what I saw."
Now, 7 centuries later, Polo's credibility again is under attack. Had he been to China, his critics argue, he would have surely reported a few details of 13th-century Chinese life that went unmentioned. Like tea drinking, the binding of women's feet to keep them small, and, a little something hard to ignore, the Great Wall of China.
Could have been the low-lying clouds.
In a 1995 book, "Did Marco Polo Go to China?" Frances Wood, head of the British Library's Chinese department, argues that Marco Polo did not make the fabulous journey he documents in his book. And why, she suggests, "given China’s extensive and even obsessive record-keeping, is there no mention of Marco Polo anywhere in the archives."
But it’s not so easy to dismiss the man with a few hundred well-chosen words.
And it should be mentioned that a century after he was ridiculed as "the man of a million lies," a Renaissance geographer hailed him as "the most diligent investigator of eastern shores." Another reader, Christopher Columbus, who owned a copy of "Travels" and made annotations in the margins, sailed west in hopes of finding a better route to the riches Polo described in the East. And made it.
Who to believe? I prefer the Hollywood version, “The Adventures of Marco Polo.” And if Gary Cooper traveled the Silk Road to China, who are we to dispute it?
Fantasy or reality, Marco Polo got his world to look beyond their collective noses.
Care to share a few great adventures of your own? Either the ones you've had. Or those still residing in that lovely spot the Marco Polo's of this world helped shape.
Your imagination.
still thinking about today...
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I will defer to IVAN on this topic, I believe he knows Marco.
Would swimming pools be as much fun,had we not heard of him?
Would swimming pools be as much fun,had we never heard his name?
was on my Bberry, and it didn't refresh;hence a double post-almost..*sigh*
Ah, RoadYacht, the ol' swimming pool game.
Remember it well.
O great!!!!! All is well with the world.
Marco Polo would have loved Google Earth.
The ballet on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCNb--0PUJo&feature=related
Isin't it ironic that the disparaging fault finders now bring focus on what was omitted rather than what he had detailed? China is a huge place and it is possible he may have included accounts that were not first hand, but so what. To the Chinese, he was probably not recorded because he was one of many foreigners employed by the Mongols, who didn't trust the Chinese. The Yuan dynasty (Kublai Khan's) history was recorded by the (Chinese) Ming officials, who overthrew the Mongols. Marco Polo was your regular, everyday city official, in the City of Yangzhou, for about 2-3 years tops, and you don't get into national histories unless you did something extraordinarily heroic or extraordinarily stupid. He was a frog in a big pond.
I prefer to celebrate what he was - an adventurer, a bridge builder between two different worlds, two different cultures, and between the known and the unknown.
what is the swimming pool game that conjures up the name of marco polo?
Hello, Spring Fragrance~ I think the boys are talking about water polo. The game polo 'proper' is played on horseback and is very expensive. At the other end of the scale, one can buy a tube of Polo mints - very pepperminty sweets with a hole in the middle. Horses love them. Should the the weather turn a bit chilly, try a polo neck pullover. Volkswagen make a little car called a polo.
Poor old Marco ~ not nice having your work discredited. Maps that showed you'd fall off the edge of our flat planet if you sail too far have long since been disproven, but it does not take away one bit of the romance.
The chicken shit "world is flat and fine the way it is" Nit Pickers can not understand the best that humankind has to offer is the Dreamer who also is a Doer. A few tall tales to go with the truth are fine by me from a bigger than life gutsy opportunist. First hand accounts are always skewed with a little personal perspective and I will take a little adventure over watching ink dry on a boring parchment cause there was no freaking quality paper to write on or gunpowder to celebrate with. I stumbled into a little town in NC years ago and saw a restaurant named Marco Polo where both Italian and Chinese was served. As I hoisted a few Chiantis and Tsing Taos I thought Mr. Chow's Szechuan dumplings and Alfredo both cut the spicy mustard. And without Mr. Polo there would have been no China Grove in the Long Star state for the Doobie Bros to sing about.
BTW- Marco Polo is a cool name and based on the GQ headshot I would love to meet his tailor along with Zevon's Werewolf of London. Those threads are definitely catalogue material, Mr P
Good morning, everybody. We have a fresh topic, and the enthusiasm (some might say RELIEF) is apparent as the usual suspects vigorously put the metaphorical ball in play.....
Okay, first things first... Paolos, Stoney and Chef Deb, looking forward to our outing... I will buy a couple rounds myself.
Now, onto today's topic. Since the beloved pool game has already been mentioned and nobody else has said it, I am forced to start (ha ha)
M-A-R-C-O!
POLO!!! Seapansie replys....".OK, MARCO catch me in this tub of a pool of water if you can!"
Marco can be compared to the modern adventurer, "Easy Rider..." ( outdoor long distance motorcyclist)....check hilarious picture on the community page of a Easy Rider, Took a picture opportunity downtown on the Southside....
NEXT... I posted a MOVIE POSTER picture of the famous movie, EASY RIDER WITH DENNIS HOPPER...JACK NICKOLESON, FOR THE MOTORCYCLE BUFFS...
MARCO! Seapansie, I'm on my way, but it's quite a swim to Pittsburgh!
POLO !!!!
Sewing today...I am sewing & adorning a pair of Inc. White moderate bell jeans..;I cut above the knee,,,will add lace and fanciful rik rak.to the bottom of freshcut pant legs....now, I have leftover moderate pant bells to be used for new sleeves for a top...Wonderful....so ......inspired...today...!!!
Marco Polo had the best of all worlds...like me!!
No matter what he said or did, where he went or didn't, was serious or sarcastic about...there was always someone to put a spin on details.
Which gave Marco the freedom to go his merry way.
You all know about the Hubble telescope and a few others that can be thought of?
You see! It is really true that it's all done with mirrors!
Oh! Alice where are you? Did you meet Marco??
Seapansie, there's an anniversary commemorative edition Easy Rider package that you might still find if you look at used DVD/CD stores. It has the movie in remastered format, a CD of the songs (maany of which were popular in their own right), AND a paperback book documenting the movie's making.....very nice retro collection in the same oversized packaging. Play your cards right, you may share (once I get it back from my kid, who @ 18 and packing for college has now morphed into space cadet mode.....
Space Cadet seems like the operative word. Greetings everyone, glad we're back on the grid, and of course Mr. P. serves as Marco Polo for us now. and one never tires of the Who Started Macaroni argument for us food oriented posters.
Hope you are faring well weatherwise--we are currently in the midst of a monsoon.
Spring- Your 4:44 question of what is Marco Polo as a game....My understanding of it as I have seen kids in the pool play it is like Blindman's Bluff with the one who is IT, closes his eyes tightly and calls out "Marco" and the others in the pool try to stay away from being tagged, but they have to announce their locations by answering "Polo!" So, the one who is IT can find them by the sound of the voice. There are rules about getting out of the pool to avoid being tagged,e tc....see....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo_(game)
As for today's topic, I agree with Spring that China is so large that Marco might have seen some of China and not seen all of China, thus no record of his visit, and some sights left out of his diaries. The urge to travel is stronger in some of us than others, so I give him all the credit for his long journey and journals.
I want to see more of our huge USA before I tackle the Far East, so I am planning our route to N. Dakota and across to Seattle for Aug-Sept. I hear the motels and places to stay are limited on this hike, so am making some reservations. We are driving the trusty 1999 Silverado with its new engine. Looking forward to seeing places new to us, parks, mountains, rivers, people. I keep a daily journal and fire up the laptop each night when we stop.
Salute!! Go, all you Marco Polos out there!!
As for the topic and food---- Thanks, Marco, if you are the one who brought back the taste of China as known in the southern USA, the ubiquitous "Chinese Mandarin II" restaurant!! I love that food....shrimp and snow peas, Phoenix and Dragon seafood with steamed rice and egg rolls!! It may not be authentic, but it is a great contrast to Southern pork chops and greens, which I also love!
A big back pat for Marco and his info about the riches of China!
I'd have to tell Mr. Polo that in order to find Wisconsin USA nowadays he should look for a desert, and a mile after mile of corn that will never grow. Great summer for beaching, but the farmers are not smiling.
"With all the excitement of the Olympic Games" ..... More like widespread apathy.
Awww ~ Lonesome George the big old Galopogus tortoise has died.
Will I be a lesser person if I am not interested in a ballet being performed in Bejing?
The Silk Road.....the name alone conjures up adventures. I've recently read some very swash buckling tales of travel and exploits (authored by Harold Lamb) in that area.....and despite the fact that life itself was easily snuffed out and not mourned....just one more body....it makes me want to sit astride a steppe pony with my sword firmly strapped on and seek out those chasms and hairpin turns and shelter in a tent in the snow. Knowing all the while that all the gold and jewels in the world await me....just beyond the next gorge and the next blind turning.
As my friend Patrick would say, don't let the truth get in the way of a good story...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGLTyTkqnmM
The fun part is picking the true events out of that song. I don't know if they've forgiven Kathleen yet for the whole getting sued by a sultan thing.
I just finished skimming yesterdays posts. I think you all did very well without any topic. A few inward looks. Interesting. Love you guys.
Many hours later, it is really hard to top Paolos' opening......
I never knew there was any controversy about whether or not Marco Polo had ever been to China. Where else would spaghetti have come from???
Hazel Leese, I am completely bereft by the news you just shared. I had no idea Lonesome George had died. I feel hollow. Similar to when my paternal grandfather died. I had only seen him a few times in person but we had a bond. We corresponded snail mail of course, from the time I was a child until he died when I was an adult with two children of my own. After I was on my own I would call him long distance once a month. When he died I just felt that there was something wrong with the world because Grandfather was no longer alive on it. That is what your news has done to me. I feel like someone belted me in the stomach. We have lost a species because one has died. They are now forever extinct. We knew that was going to happen, but now it has, and it is final. The world is emptier because of it. And I mourn. Hazel would you please tell me what day this happened?
lovebirdmom~ I'm not sure - it was in today's UK newspapers and on the BBC TV and Radio News. I, too, was very sad to hear that Lonesome George had died - hope he's in tortoise heaven eating strawbrerries.
Just checked on Google - he died on Sunday.
Seapansie~ Re; the cutting off of the jeans...be sure to cut plenty the first time because if you cut too much you can always sew a little back on but if you don't get enough off the first time there's just nothing you can do.
That has got to be from the Daisy Dukes School of Seamstress Excellence somewhere in the Carolinas.
That has got to be advice from the Daisy Dukes School of Seamstress Excellence somewhere in the Carolinas. I cut off too much and had to sew the advice back on.
I'm lost in admiration seapansie~ sewing is a mystery to me.
I caught an explorer he was this big...
----> <----
I have traveled right at 30k actual miles so far this year & blown away @ how far we have come in such a short time comparatively speaking. The trade routes of Polo & Co (Marco though I do like Ralph Lauren) opened up markets that changed the world. Humans are remarkable creatures and both historically and presently continue to surprise me with their accomplishments. Yet I am however still waiting for the Dumbass Vaccine to be approved.
SP-Easy Rider- Lowbudget blockbuster of our lifetime-still got my poster A Classic) and the acid trip with Baudelaire's philosophy might have to be rewritten with Marco in an opium den and Lao Tzu's advice? Actually might explain his missing The Great Wall?
My inner Marco Polo bids me to enter the land of duvet and dreams. No da, dear people. x
Eeeew!!! Nos da!!!
Trying to dig out some pictures of Lonesome George that I took while traveling to Ecuador in 2005. On the positive side, LG raised millions of dollars for the Charles Darwin Research Institute, which in turn funds a sheltered breeding & repopulation program. The Galapagos Islands are 95% national park, and a living laboratory and open air classroom where even children are able to grasp both the beauty as well as the delicateness of nature. Ironic that Hazel's sharing of LG's demise came on a day dedicated to travel. At least LG checked out with a big smile on his face, he was kept in a special private compound with 3 young breeding females of similar genetic makeup in a futile attempt to try to keep some evidence of his species alive in the wild.....
Late last night, a scholar asserted on C-SPAN that Samuel F. B. Morse was not the inventor of the telegraph and that Alexander Graham Bell was not the inventor of the phone.
Today, we are lead to believe that Marco Polo did not invent China.
What next? George Washington was the uncle of our country?
Whatever happens to Polo, he'll always have his shirt.
The moral: if you want to be immortal in the sense that everyone remembers you, before you pass on to the great wherever, be sure to name a piece of clothing after yourself.
PAOLOS: Actually Paolos ....... I am a little Older ... but not quite that Old ....... One of the Secrets of a Great Life, is to keep getting Older without ever getting Old !!!
Marco Polo has always been a Favorite of mine, and I have read every thing I can find written about him ... I have bought every Biography about him that I could find, and have always been fascinated with his perspectives on the things he saw .......
I had, at one time, what I felt to be the definitive Tome on Marco Polo ... and against my own Rule, I lent the Book to someone I felt could be trusted ... Bastard got Shipped Out and never got the Book back to me ... I located him on his next Ship, called him, scared the crap out of him, but he told me he had left the Book in my State Room before he left ... I didn't believe him, but was beating a Dead Horse, so I let the whole thing go ... Took me ten years to find another copy of that same Book ... in the mean time, I expanded the List of Don'ts in my Personal Philosophy; I don't lend my Cars, I don't lend my Guns, I don't share my Women, I don't drink warm Beer, I don't lend my Horse, and I do NOT lend my Books ....... My Personal Library is over six thousand Volumes, and it is going to stay that way ... I will no doubt acquire more Books during the next fifty-five years, but I'll be dipped if I will ever lose one again .....
Ivan- ...just lend your mind in posted form, Brother. You are the Maimonides of the Lone Star State.
**My woman has reined in my carnivorous habits and I just rolled into Cheeseburger in Paradise only to have Fish Tacos with pineapple salsa and teriyaki broccoli in lieu of fries but I am working on my 2nd Paradise Beach Ale.
***Kung Fu was one of my favorite TV Series of the early 70's. Cowboy mystic suits me fine. East meets West why not grasshopper?
Hey Jalopkin, I Have about as many books as you, I AGREE, I never lend my books. If I had a horse, and I LOVE THEM, I would not lend it either. Beer you can keep. Dont lend guns either. ANYWAY- I GOT A NEW PUPPY TODAY. HER NAME IS SEAVILLE'S GRACEFUL DANCER. I CALL HER GRACIE. SHE IS A 3 MO OLD ENGLISH SPRINGER SPANIEL. :) SLEEP TIGHT EVERYONE!
Yep. p4 and Stonemeister- Chinos and a Polo or LaCoste with a pair of Docksiders or Weejuns (no sox) is an American Iconic look. Add a little stubble and a pair of Aviators and a watch that can really go into the drink in case of emergency.
Got to make sure there are at least 50 posts. There's no free ride in this carnival world~getting toasted/done & as alternative Mr P said to Elaine "My mind is a barren as the surface of the moon". Mahalo
as barren of course¥¥¥¥¥
Paula, i had the misfortune of having a room named after me instead of cothes. I must be infamous instead.
Happy day tomorrow.....i'll catch up in a fortnight.
HUdson john
There's a room named HUDSON?!?
Bless You TOMMY, and Good On You !!! Thats even Older than Paolos puts me !!! But, What the Hell ??? Every day is a Blessing, and I shall be so Blessed till I am 130 years old, plus One Day ....... I will definitely NOT give any of my Ex-Wives, nor any of my Enemies/Detractors the satisfaction of my dropping dead first !!!
MISS MAGICANGEL: Congratulations on your Springer ... They are Marvelous Dogs ... You'll have years of Fun with her ... Great Companionship ... while she can't talk back to you, you will find that she will THINK back to you so's you can better read the expressions on her face ... You will find that very comforting also, as the years go by, and May They Go Slowly ... Male Springers tend to remain Puppies, if they live to be Twenty years old ... They might not move around so swiftly as before, but they will never stop trying ...
IVAN ~ I confess that when I opined, I inferred that you and Marco are of the same age, if we can't jest here in this the last bastion of jesticulation in the free world, pray tell where may we jest? But saying you know Marco was an intended and might I say reverential nod to your erudition.
Ivan, your list of rules reminded me of this song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebg9v6paopc
MISS NACHISTA: Good On You !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never heard this piece before, but I think it is going to be my New Theme Song ... Had the Old one for a long enough time that a change might be Good !!! Besides ... most everyone who ever heard the last one, is already dead .......
Ivan, that album got me through my wedding anniversary right after my divorce, it's good stuff.
I bet good money the room is named "TheSepia Room" or train after Mr J.