31 dezembro, 2011

29 dezembro, 2011

Caprichos #189

Pão espanhol

Palavras lidas #179

Una cena preciosa...

...y la música, señores, fenomenal!

28 dezembro, 2011

Sem título #25


O maravilhoso sol de Lisboa, brilha a céu aberto desde dia 20 (pelo menos) e o inverno vai ameno com temperaturas bem agradáveis de 13-18 graus... qual Califórnia do sul. É agora tempo de rumar a Madrid... qual rei de Roma.

A Madrid, nueve meses de invierno y tres e infierno

... pues que venga el invierno!

23 dezembro, 2011

Caprichos #188

Getting spoiled on your birthday

22 dezembro, 2011

20 dezembro, 2011

Coisas que não mudam #174

On the mouth of the Tagus river sits the hilly city of Lisbon. This morning cloudless, all the way to Cascais and Sintra.

19 dezembro, 2011

Caprichos #186

Ahhh Lisbon... looks like I'll have a short sleeved birthday ;-)

Coisas que não mudam #173

Sai-se num dia e chega-se no outro

Coisas que não mudam #172

Season's Greetings, and thoughtful friends

18 dezembro, 2011

Ficam tão bem cá em casa #41


Summer Bounty 12

Numa sala perto de mim #181

The Descendants (2011) in the beautiful Hawaiian scenery of Oahu, the Big Island and Kaua'i.

"Leave your kids enough money to do something, but not enough to do nothing"

16 dezembro, 2011

Foi neste dia #160 (1775)

236 years ago, Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, UK

15 dezembro, 2011

Parece que estou a ouvir #124

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Gayla Peevey

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
Don't want a doll, no dinky tinker toy
I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
I don't think Santa Claus will mind, do you?
He won't have to use our dirty chimney flue
Just bring him through the front door, that's the easy thing to do

I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too

Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then
Teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian

There's lots of room for him in our two-car garage
I'd feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage
I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs
Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses
I only like hippopotamuseses
And hippopotamuses like me too!

14 dezembro, 2011

Parece que estou a ouvir #123

Myths inside one's head do not die easily. For some reason, which I cannot precisely identify, I thought that in California (at least Southern California, i.e. LA and below) it was summer all year round. Over the three days I spent south of Los Angeles last weekend, it was not super cold but it was mildly cold, with high temperatures in the upper 50s to mid 60s (that is ~13-18C, a pleasant winter day in Lisbon).

Upon arrival, embarrassed locals felt compelled to apologize outsiders for the cold weather so unusual this time of the year. With no exception, we all replied that it was much warmer than where we came from and that we were very pleased not to need a jacket outside! Though the weather was much warmer than in middle Tennessee (or worse, New England), I couldn't help but feeling a little disappointed. The myth was gone and with it all the idealized versions of southern CA life... nothing much but enough to make a Portuguese girl nostalgic. The almost 40-year-old (!) song from Albert Hammond came to mind even though it didn't pour. Nor did it rain. On the contrary, those were beautiful sunny days. But the winter sun gives you little warmth, as in Simone's song.

On a more positive note, when I checked-in at the hotel I was handed a welcome note with the logistic details of the conference, as well as the complimentary hotel services and amenities. Among the latter, there were "two outdoor heated pools and whirlpool spas open until 10pm." Sure enough there were plenty of people enjoying the warm pool on Saturday night... if only I had brought my bathing suit! After all, there was a glimpse of the mythical life of southern Cal!
______________

It Never Rains in Southern California
Albert Hammond

Got on board a west-bound 747
Didn't think before deciding what to do
All that talk of opportunities,
TV breaks and movies
Rang true, sure rang true.

Seems it never rain in Southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before

It never rains in California
But girl, don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours.

Out of work, I'm out of my head
Out of self respect I'm out of bread
I'm under loved I'm under fed
I wanna go home

It never rains in California
But girl don't they warn ya, it pours, man it pours.

Will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it?
Had offers but don't know which one to take
Please don't tell 'em how you found me
Don't tell 'em how you found me
Gimme a break
Give me a break

Seems it never rains in Southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before

It never rains in California
But girl, don't they warn ya
It pours... man it pours!
__________________

Sol de Inverno
Simone de Oliveira

Sabe Deus que eu quis contigo ser feliz
Viver ao sol do teu olhar mais terno
Morto o teu desejo, vivo o meu desejo
Primavera em flor ao sol de Inverno

Sonhos que sonhei, onde estão?
- Horas que vivi, quem as tem?
De que serve ter coração
e não ter o amor de ninguém?
Beijos que te dei, onde estão?
- A quem foste dar o que é meu?
Vale mais não ter coração
do que ter e não ter, como eu

Eu em troca de nada dei tudo na vida
Bandeira vencida, rasgada no chão
Sou a data esquecida,
a coisa perdida, que vai a leilão

Sonhos que sonhei, onde estão?
- Horas que vivi, quem as tem?
De que serve ter coração
e não ter o amor de ninguém?
Vivo de saudades, amor,
a vida perdeu fulgor
Como o sol de Inverno não tenho calor

De que serve ter coração
e não ter o amor de ninguém?
Vivo de saudades, amor,
a vida perdeu fulgor
Como o sol de Inverno não tenho calor

Retirado do contexto #128

"It is an arduous, and somewhat arbitrary task to justify one monarch's myopia and another monarch's unusual visionary insight, as well as it is to consider merchants in a given country sluggish and in another gifted."

Don't you, at times, get pleasantly surprised with things you've written in the past?

13 dezembro, 2011

Retirado do contexto # 127


- Lembras-te daquele casaquinho azul escuro de malha que comprei na Banana Republic? Mas que num tem botões?
- Sim
- Eu queria um daqueles "alfinetes modernos" para segurar os dois lados (já que não tem botão), compras-me?
- Sim
- Tenho muita sorte em ter uma irmã que percebe dessas coisas

(ahah fazer o quê? Até a descrição é deliciosa)

Numa sala perto de mim #180

A Few Good Men (1992). The movie is almost twenty years old, but it feels rather timeless.* Presently, as twenty years ago, the discussion of values and rule following is still relevant. Excellent acting in a movie packed with stars.
___________

*If it weren't for the type writers and the lack of cell phones...

Caprichos #185

Cherries out of season...
thank you Chile for the Chrismassy moment!

12 dezembro, 2011

From CA to CO

After stupidly losing all my pictures from California, I started shooting out the window on the flight from John Wayne airport (South of LA in Orange County, California) to Denver, Colorado. Unfortunately there was a low mist that made the surface fuzzy, but still it was nice to see the change in scenery.


Newport beach, CA


Snow over red soil. Probably Nevada or Arizona.


Changing terrain but still red


More snow


The Canyon


Night closing in


Colorado's snow capped mountains

Pormenores #72

Nothing beats Frontier airplane tails. Here the cougar, though I flew with Jack the rain deer.

08 dezembro, 2011

Caprichos #184

Frozen mornings

Numa sala perto de mim #179

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), a war movie with a comic twist... still a war movie. Phenomenal Robin Williams!

07 dezembro, 2011

Espantos #311

Muito interessante o comportamento dos corvos por estes lados. Pelas 4.15pm, quando o sol timidamente ameaça desaparecer e o horizonte dá sinais que vai mudar de cor, começam a vir de todos os lados.

Poisam nas copas das árvores próximas, já despidas pelo Outono e vão-se juntando como que à espera uns dos outros.

Mas quando o lusco fusco se instala começam a debandar, aos poucos. Pelas 4.45 já há muito poucos e às 5 nenhuns. Aqui é apenas o ponto de encontro, o local da dormida é outro!

Foi neste dia #159 (1975)


Dia negro: há 36 anos a Indonesia invadia Timor Leste

Depois do abandono atabalhoado dos Portugueses no verão de 1975, seguiram-se os conflitos entre UDT e Fretilin que levaram à declaração unilateral de independência em 28 de Novembro. Com receio da emergência de uma força comunista no pacífico sul, a Indonésia lançou, pouco mais de uma semana depois, a operação de ocupação da metade oriental da ilha de Timor, que foi declarada como a 27ª província Indonésia em meados de 1976. Tudo isto perante a indiferença Portuguesa a braços com os seus problemas e a complacência da comunidade internacional em plena Guerra Fria que, acabou por dar a Indonésia carta branca para o que desse e viesse.

06 dezembro, 2011

Parece que estou a ouvir #122


Ingredients: (1) an old New Year's (also Christmassy) Scottish* song, (2) Pink Martini's China Forbes singing in (3) three different languages, (4) to the sound of Brazilian samba drums.

Result: fantastic!

Best Christmas purchase to date!
____________

For auld lang syne
Robert Burns

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
and surely I’ll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a wearyfoot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give us a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS
_____________

* There's something about Scottish songs that is hard to put into words.

05 dezembro, 2011

Caprichos #183

Blooming roses

Numa sala perto de mim #178

Little Women (1994), from the novel I never read but always wanted to. With the background of the American civil war, this mid-nineteenth century drama tells about the lives of four sisters in pursuit of their goals... not so common back then.

04 dezembro, 2011

Palavras lidas #178

130. Give me the Splendid, Silent Sun
1
GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling;
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard;
Give me a field where the unmow’d grass grows;
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis’d grape;
Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals, teaching content; 5
Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers, where I can walk undisturb’d;
Give me for marriage a sweet-breath’d woman, of whom I should never tire;
Give me a perfect child—give me, away, aside from the noise of the world, a rural, domestic life;
Give me to warble spontaneous songs, reliev’d, recluse by myself, for my own ears only; 10
Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again, O Nature, your primal sanities!
—These, demanding to have them, (tired with ceaseless excitement, and rack’d by the war-strife;)
These to procure, incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart,
While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city;
Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking your streets, 15
Where you hold me enchain’d a certain time, refusing to give me up;
Yet giving to make me glutted, enrich’d of soul—you give me forever faces;
(O I see what I sought to escape, confronting, reversing my cries;
I see my own soul trampling down what it ask’d for.)

2

Keep your splendid, silent sun;
20
Keep your woods, O Nature, and the quiet places by the woods;
Keep your fields of clover and timothy, and your corn-fields and orchards;
Keep the blossoming buckwheat fields, where the Ninth-month bees hum;
Give me faces and streets! give me these phantoms incessant and endless along the trottoirs!
Give me interminable eyes! give me women! give me comrades and lovers by the thousand! 25
Let me see new ones every day! let me hold new ones by the hand every day!
Give me such shows! give me the streets of Manhattan!
Give me Broadway, with the soldiers marching—give me the sound of the trumpets and drums!
(The soldiers in companies or regiments—some, starting away, flush’d and reckless;
Some, their time up, returning, with thinn’d ranks—young, yet very old, worn, marching, noticing nothing;) 30
—Give me the shores and the wharves heavy-fringed with the black ships!
O such for me! O an intense life! O full to repletion, and varied!
The life of the theatre, bar-room, huge hotel, for me!
The saloon of the steamer! the crowded excursion for me! the torch-light procession!
The dense brigade, bound for the war, with high piled military wagons following; 35
People, endless, streaming, with strong voices, passions, pageants;
Manhattan streets, with their powerful throbs, with the beating drums, as now;
The endless and noisy chorus, the rustle and clank of muskets, (even the sight of the wounded;)
Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent musical chorus—with varied chorus, and light of the sparkling eyes;
Manhattan faces and eyes forever for me. 40

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Leaves of Grass

03 dezembro, 2011

Espantos #310

Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and Nike, the goddess of victory.

01 dezembro, 2011

Caprichos #182

Ninguém deve morrer sem ter comido farófias... uma delícia!

Farófias em 10 passos

1. Separar seis ovos em clara e gema
2. Bater as claras em castelo
3. Num tacho ferver leite com pau de canela, casca de limão e adoçar a gosto
4. Com uma colher tirar as farófias uma a uma das claras em castelo
5. Mergulhar cada farófia no leite a ferver, virar e retirar para uma taça
6. Bater as gemas com um bocadinho de leite frio
7. Retirar o leite do lume e misturar as gemas, mexendo muito bem para não talhar
8. Voltar a colocar o molho ao lume até engrossar
9. Deitar o molho na taça das farófias
10. Polvilhar com canela a gosto

Serve-se frio
__________

Because no one should die without having eaten these, here goes the translation.

Farófias in 10 steps

1. Separate 6 eggs, yolks from whites
2. Whip the whites with a hand mixer until they are stiff
3. In a pan, boil milk with a cinnamon stick and a lemon peel, sweeten to your taste
4. With a spoon take the egg whites (farófias) one by one
5. Immerse each farófia in the boiling milk to cook it briefly (turn them once), take them out to a large bowl (don't take any milk with it)
6. Mix the egg yolks adding a little cold milk
7. Take the boiling milk out of the stove and add the egg yolks slowly while stirring swiftly so the egg doesn't cook inside the hot milk
8. Put the pan back in the stove and mix gently so the sauce becomes thicker
9. Gently put the sauce over the farófias
10. Powder with cinnamon

Serve cold

29 novembro, 2011

Parece que estou a ouvir #121

Everywhere

Everywhere I go I know
Everywhere I go will glow
The sleepy summer sky
The lovers passing by
All the cities too
Make me think of you

Everywhere I go I see
A world designed for you and me
I always realized with every new sunrise
That you are with me everywhere

I've never ever known a love that lasted
Beyond the thrill of a first kiss
This love of ours has utterly surpassed it
And now my bliss is this

Every time I'm far from home
I am never quite alone
Whenever we're apart
You're always in my heart
For you are with me everywhere

Every time I'm far from home
I am never quite alone
Whenever we're apart
You're always in my heart
For you are with me everywhere

Coisas que não mudam #171

Everywhere


26 novembro, 2011

Parece que estou a ouvir #120


Fado Sagitário

Camané

Se foi Deus que quis assim
Nem tu sabes nem eu sei
Mas tenho-te presa a mim
Por tudo o que não te dei

Se eu te desse o que tu queres
Quem sabe se nesse dia
Depois de tu me prenderes
Eu nunca mais te prendia

E se me queres como sou
Não me queiras prisioneiro
Não te daria o que dou
Se me desse por inteiro
Só posso dar-te o que dou
Porque não me dou por inteiro

E por muito que te queixes
Só espero que tu entendas
Que prefiro que me deixes
A deixar que tu me prendas

Bem sei que é contradição
Eu pedir-te liberdade
Sabendo que a condição
É ficar preso à saudade

Ditto #192


Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

--Voltaire

22 novembro, 2011