Without flowing wine
How to enjoy lovely
Cherry blossoms?

The first soft snow
Enough to bend the leaves
Of the jonquil low

"Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon"

65 years ago.... Mars attacked!

Create a TV ad that tells the truth about George W. Bush.

Sick of the propaganda being beamed at you from the current administration's media mavens?
Here's a new way to fight back: Enter MoveOn.org Voter Fund's political ad contest.

And now for something completely different:
Snake oil or Health Tonic?
really, there's no way to Reason with the FDA?


Did you know that Sophia recited poetry by Lorca and Benedetti to his son Miguel, the one who collected the Reina Sofia Prize? She liked the Spanish spoken word very much :-)

Indeed you do, and after visiting it we relaxed nearby with the exact same view and much less people :-)

I think I know this place

Sophia ganha Sofia
A Rainha Sofia de Espanha entregou, ontem, em Madrid, no Palácio Real, o Prémio de Poesia com o seu nome a Miguel Sousa Tavares em representação de sua mãe, Sophia de Mello Breyner, impedida de estar presente. Ao lado do escritor esteve também Zeferino Coelho, da Caminho, que edita as obras da autora de Mar.
Sophia é não só a primeira escritora portuguesa como a primeira mulher vencedora do Rainha Sofia. João Cabral de Mello Neto, José Hierro e José Antonio Munõz Rojas (este o ano passado) já o arrebataram.
O Prémio de Poesia Rainha Sofia distingue a poetisa portuguesa «pelo seu valor literário, que constitui um contributo válido para a Humanidade.» E é da responsabilidade do Património Nacional de Espanha, um organismo oficial, e da Universidade de Salamanca.
Ao longo da sua carreira, Sophia já arrecadou inúmeros prémios, designadamente o Grande Prémio de Poesia, da Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores (1964); o Prémio Pascoaes (1977), o Prémio da Crítica da Associação Internacional de Críticos Literários (1983), o Grande Prémio Gulbenkian para Crianças (1992), pelo conjunto da obra, o Prémio Petrarca, da Associação dos Escritores italianos (1995), o Prémio Camões (1999) e o Max Jacob Étranger (2001), entre outros.
Nascida no Porto, em 1919, Sophia surge, em 1944, com Poesia, tendo publicado livros como Dia do Mar, Livro Sexto, O Nome das Coisas, Ilha, O Búzio de Cós e Outros Poemas. Escreveu ainda para crianças e traduziu para língua portuguesa Dante, Claudel e Shakespeare.

Henry David Thoreau's (1817-1862) On Civil Disobedience, very a propos and even translated to Spanish :-), plus access to the Thoreau Reader

I fear a world were people in charge of polling stations, voting machines, ballots, people in charge of democracy says
things like this

I'm in my happy place...

The problem with abundance

What do traffic jams, obesity and spam have in common?...

Earth Observatory pics. Some are of amazing quality:

Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve



Isabel



Îles Glorieuses



Nunca Mais

"Fahrenheit four five one is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and starts to burn.
We burn them to ashes and then burn the ashes. That's our official motto."

Ever wondered how much a billion dollars (insert Dr. Evil laughter here) is?

O Cinema Espanhol está de regresso à capital, através de uma iniciativa organizada pela Videoteca Municipal de Lisboa, a associação Zero em Comportamento e o Instituto Cervantes de Lisboa.
Tal como aconteceu no ano passado, a Mostra de Cinema e Vídeo de Espanha vai levar a Lisboa algumas das mais recentes produções do país vizinho.
No entanto, este ano a mostra apresenta-se com um âmbito ainda mais alargado, incluindo destacados documentários produzidos no ano passado, uma programação de vídeo organizada pelo Museu Reiña Sofia, assim como um conjunto de curtas e longas para todos os gostos do fantástico à comédia.
Da programação desta 2ª Mostra de Audiovisual de Espanha, destacam-se algumas ante--estreias em Portugal. É o caso de 800 Balas, do realizador Alex de la Iglesia, "Darkness", de Jaume Balagueró e de "Mortadelo Y Filemón", de Javier Fesser - o segundo filme mais visto da história do cinema espanhol.

A grande nuvem escura vai-se embora
dissolve-se a loucura da tormenta
a maré recua agora plana e lenta
as gaivotas largam terra sem demora
sobrevoam sem ruído o seu rochedo
de tanta vaga e espuma já dormente
enquanto o sol que brilha novamente
lá beija a areia toda já sem medo

Fui ver
Fui ver a tempestade
vim a correr
Fui ver
Fui ver
a tempestade
vim-te dizer
Destroços de madeira na corrente
deixam ver o que em tempos foi uma proa
pintada de carinho e muitas côres
ao estilo desta nossa boa gente

Fica o drama dos que esperam na falésia
por quem Deus já destinou à eternidade
e é lição que contra Deus não há vontade
fica a fúria calma da grande saudade

Stephen King meets Noam Chomsky

That's Michael Moore acording to The Guardian

Now seriously, an International Herald Tribune article on the role Spain plays in the new power core of Europe (aach, tis no longer the franco-german axis, lowercased here yes :-P)

ALTHOUGH, my favourite is:

«There is no Frigate like a book
To take us Lands away»wrote Emily Dickinson, but the Americans favor their own lit, which in turn is massive, granted, so let's read about suggestions to improve this Monoglot Nation :-)
(reg required)

Amazon is launching an impressive Look Inside the Book service. Now instead of just displaying books whose title, author, or publisher-provided keywords match your search terms, your search results will surface titles based on every word inside the book.

MoMA Mia! :-D



Remembering San Francisco and something we didn't get to see, Marc Chagall at SF MoMA. This is called A Midsummer Night's Dream :-)

Wonderful picture of El real viaje Real exhibit at PS1 MoMA. Hum, what's it about?

What have they done to the English language? Here's a new
book
about it.

Lengthy article on George Orwell's ideas on writing :-)

You cannot get more Calatrava than this:

Haven't we been here having a lovely dinner?

20 poetas espanhóis do século XX



Miguel de Unamuno, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Pedro Salinas, Jorge Guillén, Vicente Aleixandre, Federico García Lorca, Luis Cernuda, Rafael Alberti, Miguel Hernández, Blas de Otero, José Hierro, Ángel González, José Ángel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma, Francisco Brines, Claudio Rodríguez, Pere Gimferrer, Antonio Colinas, Leopoldo María Panero

Music composed and played by Miles Davies and inspired by a flamenco concert his ballerina wife recommended to him :-)

Our own private guide to Seppuku

Spanish Fooooood: nice article on the NY Times including recipes! :-9

MIT: Information on Open Courses online, ooohhh, I wish, if only, here's several I'd be interested in:
Comparative Media Studies; Foreign Languages and Literatures; Literature Materials; Media Arts and Sciences; Women's Studies; Writing and Humanistic Studies; uuuuuffffffff :-)

Found this very nice web about Hayao Miyazaki



It seems that he already has a project for next summer:

Howl's Moving Castle

If you want to feel a little of the wonder that medieval peasants must have felt when they walked into Chartres or Salisbury cathedrals for the first time, get yourself down to the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. The Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has created one of the most mesmerising pieces of large-scale art ever seen on these shores - a sun rising out of a sweet-scented Wagnerian mist that sets the hairs on the back of your neck tingling.

Em todos os idiomas europeus, a palavra NOITE é formada pela letra N + o número 8...

A letra N é o símbolo matemático de infinito e o 8 deitado também simboliza infinito, ou seja, noite significa, em todas as línguas, a união do infinito!!!

Português: noite = n + oito
Inglês: night = n + eight
Alemão: nacht = n + acht
Espanhol: noche = n + ocho
Francês: nuit = n + huit
Italiano: notte = n + otto

Tis the second this blog mentions Dido the singer/songwriter, so here's this painting by Turner in homage :-)

I didn't hear you leave ,
I wonder how am I still here ,
I don't want to move a thing ,
it might change my memory
Oh I am what I am,
I'll do what I want ,
but I can't hide
I won't go,
I won't sleep ,
I can't breathe ,
until you're resting here with me
I won't leave ,
I can't hide ,
I cannot be,
until you're resting here with me
I don't want to call my friends ,
they might wake me from this dream
And I can't leave this bed,
risk forgetting all that's been
Oh I am what I am,
I'll do what I want ,
but I can't hide
I won't go,
I won't sleep ,
I can't breathe ,
until you're resting here with me
I won't leave ,
I can't hide ,
I cannot be,
until you're resting here with me

Goya, a biography by Robert Hughes

Books

Thinking of writing a book, any book? Think again and go thru this list of common mistakes, or the big Ten Commandments of good writing. Heck!

Bloody Golden Gate


Bridges do ring bells, but this particular contraption seems to be ideal for shuffling of this mortal coil

Also in The Guardian, The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list.
Guess who's number one...



En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lentejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda. El resto della concluían sayo de velarte, calzas de velludo para las fiestas con sus pantuflos de lo mismo, los días de entre semana se honraba con su vellori de lo más fino.

Strangely enough, Cien Años de Soledad scored seventy-something... So it goes...

" Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo. Macondo era entonces una aldea de veinte casas de barro y cañabrava construida a la orilla de un río de aguas diáfanas que se precipitaban por un lecho de piedras pulidas, blancas y enormes como huevos prehistóricos. El mundo era tan reciente, que muchas cosas carecían de nombre, y para mencionarlas había que señalarlas con el dedo.
(...)

Which leading British author reduced two judges to giggles?
Which Nobel laureate was dismissed as 'deplorable and dishonest'?
The Guardian has a piece that treads inside the Booker price judging room

Justicia lingüística

SONETO DEL VINO

¿En qué reino, en qué siglo, bajo qué silenciosa
conjunción de los astros, en qué secreto día
que el mármol no ha salvado, surgió la valerosa
y singular idea de inventar la alegría?

Con otoños de oro la inventaron. El vino
fluye rojo a lo largo de las generaciones
como el río del tiempo y en el arduo camino
nos prodiga su música, su fuego y sus leones.

En la noche del júbilo o en la jornada adversa
exalta la alegría o mitiga el espanto
y el ditirambo nuevo que este día le canto

otrora lo cantaron el árabe y el persa.
Vino, enséñame el arte de ver mi propia historia
como si ésta ya fuera ceniza en la memoria.

Quase todos os caminhos da criação teatral contemporânea vão dar a Moscovo e necessariamente se cruzam com Piotr Fomenko, um dos mais aclamados encenadores da actualidade. Ganha renome internacional, depois de uma brilhante carreira no seu país, com a apresentação, em dois anos consecutivos, quer no Festival de Outono de Paris, quer no de Madrid. Os vários quadrantes da crítica outorgam-lhe os mais rasgados elogios. Lisboa vai assistir a uma tão longa, quanto arrebatadora encenação da obra-prima universal de L. Tolstoï, Guerra e Paz. Na nossa época a coesão mundial é dilacerada por dois flagelos: a violência e a guerra.

A reflexão sobre o tema e sobre o pesadelo napoleónico, a partir também do equilíbrio do terror vivido pelo encenador, através do grande romance russo, desencadeia em cada um de nós, com grande intensidade psicológica, a perturbação e o desconforto perante um ritual absurdo de crueldade e destruição. Combatendo o desencanto e o individualismo, tendo Stanislavsky por perto, contesta-nos e desafia-nos na e para re-reinstalação de novos modelos de sociedade insofismavelmente de índole mais tolerante. O palco torna-se o mundo.

A very nice flash site by Storm Thorgeson:

Home, Home Again...



a história da hacienda benazuza remonta ao século X
uma antiga quinta mourisca recuperada no século XIII pelo rei D. Fernando III,
o santo, durante a reconquista de isbilia

a história da hacienda está fortemente associada à de seus proprietários (a ordem de Santiago e de diversas famílias da nobreza espanhola, como os condes de benazuza) em meados do século XIX acolheu a ganadaria de touros bravos Pablo-Romero, uma das mais prestigiadas e antigas de espanha

em 1992, um grande trabalho de restauração transformou a hacienda benazuza num dos melhores hotéis do mundo
a hacienda benazuza surge como um oásis em plena andaluzia rodeado por um mar de oliveiras centenárias, onde se desfruta do relaxante rumor das fontes e do subtil aroma dos jardins...

a hacienda benazuza está associada desde 2000 a el bulli, marca dos restaurantes de Ferràn Adrià, considerado por muitos como o melhor cozinheiro do mundo (3 estrelas michelin)

a hacienda benazuza é um dos hotéis com mais magia no mundo inteiro uma harmoniosa combinação da arquitectura, da excelência no serviço e na cozinha de autor contemporânea, e do cuidado nos pequenos detalhes, fazem da hacienda benazuza uma experiência única

um lugar tranquilo e discreto para descansar e se deixar seduzir pela magia da andaluzia

Pink Floyd lançam DVD

"Live At Pompeii Film" é o título do DVD que os Pink Floyd vão lançar a 20 de Outubro. Além dos 60 minutos do concerto realizado no anfiteatro romano de Pompeia em Outubro de 1971, o DVD apresenta mais 91 minutos de imagens escolhidas pelo realizador Adrian Maben.
O filme concerto de Pompeia foi inicialmente realizado para a televisão europeia e apresentado no Festival de Cinema de Edimburgo, no Reino Unido, em 1972.
O DVD apresenta também imagens com Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright e Nick Mason durante a gravação do álbum "Dark Side Of The Moon" nos estúdios Abbey Road, em Londres, em 1973.

DULCE PONTES CANTA A ENNIO MORRICONE
4 de Septiembre de 2003

Hasta ahora Dulce Pontes ya nos había demostrado que su arte consiste en crear, en ir más allá de la mera repetición. Y que su voz luminosa no cabe en ningún estilo que la limite, pues constituye un género propio. En su continua búsqueda de un universo propio llega ahora por fin "FOCUS Morricone & Dulce Pontes" (Universal), su nuevo disco, que verá la luz el próximo 14 de octubre. Una esperadísima sorpresa, un trabajo en el que canta temas compuestos por el gran Ennio Morricone, cautivado por el talento de la portuguesa, y que también ha participado en la grabación del disco. Volveremos a sentir lo grande que es Dulce Pontes. Y lo harán más aún quienes acudan a los conciertos que ofrecerá en el mes de octubre en Madrid y Barcelona.

This is so good and so un-American: Middle-earth in Montana :-)
Reg required, but worth it.

The Etymon Code
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, the latest twist on the quest for the Holy Grail, has been a best-selling novel for the past six months. More than 2.6 million copies of this exciting yarn (multidimensional plot, unidimensional characters) are in print, and the paperback is yet to come. I interpret this fiction success as evidence of the public hunger for etymology.

That's because the author is fascinated with the origins of words. Here is a review of his rooting into roots.

''Nowadays,'' Brown writes, ''the term pagan had become almost synonymous with devil worship -- a gross misconception. The word's roots actually reached back to the Latin paganus, meaning country-dwellers. 'Pagans' were literally unindoctrinated country folk who clung to the old, rural religions of nature worship.''

The Oxford English Dictionary disagrees: ''The explanation of Latin paganus in the sense 'non-Christian, heathen,' as arising out of that of 'villager, rustic' (supposedly indicating the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire . . . ) has been shown to be chronologically and historically untenable.'' The O.E.D. then sternly gives its evidence of early usage.

''In fact,'' Brown continues, ''so strong was the church's fear of those who lived in the rural villes that the word for 'villager' -- vilain -- came to mean a wicked soul.''

He's on solider ground there. The Latin villa means ''country house, farm,'' and Merriam-Webster tracks villain from a feudal peasant to a boor to a scoundrel and on to a character in a story who opposes the hero. But villagers did not become villains because the church feared them; more likely, it was just that the lords of the manor looked down on the lower classes and equated their coarse manners with loose morals.

In having a character discuss Leonardo Da Vinci's sexuality, Brown writes that he ''considered offering an etymological sidebar about the word hermaphrodite and its ties to Hermes and Aphrodite, but something told him it would be lost on this crowd.''

Not the crowd that reads this column. We all know that Hermes and Aphrodite (Mercury and Venus) named their son by amalgamating their names: Hermaphroditus. When this handsome lad swam in the stream of the nymph Salmacis after rejecting her advances, she prayed that they never be separated and -- presto! -- combined with him, thereby combining male and female characteristics and leading to the coinage of hermaphrodite. The novelist Brown has that right.

''Few Christians who gazed upon 'the crucifix' realized their symbol's violent history was reflected in its very name: 'cross' and 'crucifix' came from the Latin verb cruciare -- to torture.''

That's correct as deeply as it goes. When we track excruciating back to its painful origins, we find cruciare, ''to crucify, torture on a cross,'' and finally to the architectural, pre-painful crux, ''cross,'' or ''a perpendicular beam supporting a horizontal beam.''

Now to the root of sub rosa. The rose is a key symbol in Brown's plot. His hero says: ''The Romans hung a rose over meetings to indicate the meeting was confidential. Attendees understood that whatever was said under the rose -- or sub rosa -- had to remain a secret.''

I don't know why the novelist attributes it to the Romans. Earliest citation is in Henry VIII's 1546 State Papers, which in modern English reads, ''The said questions were asked with license, and should remain under the rose . . . no more to be rehearsed.''

In the 1960 ''Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees,'' Ernst and Johanna Lehner tell how Aphrodite (you remember Hermes's girlfriend) presented a rose to her son, Eros, god of love: ''When Eros in turn gave the rose to Harpocrates, the deity of silence, to induce him to conceal the weaknesses of the gods, the rose became the emblem of silence and secrecy. In ancient times a rose was attached to the ceiling of council chambers as an indication that everybody present was sworn to secrecy, sub rosa -- under the rose.''

That uncited reference to ''ancient times'' gives a tenuous basis to Brown's use of the symbol by Romans. But it also explains something far afield: I always presumed that in the Marx Brothers comedies, the mute Harpo was so named because he played the harp. But could it be that the comic geniuses selected that name from Harpocrates, god of silence?

It's time for George Orwell's account on the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia

It falls down. It burns up. It goes Beatnik in the fifties and crazy in the sixties. It stays elegant throughout. Every city has its stories, but San Francisco seems to have more than most. From Jack Kerouac on working on the railroad to Anne Lamott on getting kicked out of the cafe scene, and from Jack London on the 1906 earthquake to Tom Wolfe on the acid tests of the 1960s, San Francisco Stories collects the most outstanding writings about the city from some of the most distinguished authors of the last 150 years.