Espantos #285

Temperature amplitude: 8am 24C; 7pm -1C. Second tornado alert survived. Have a feeling these alerts are going to be regular...

Caprichos #159

American shops just need an excuse to make a sale. Yesterday at the Banana Republic store:

her ma'am have you got yours?

me sorry?

her (handing me a sealed envelope) in lieu of the oscars we are offering a special sale. You keep this envelope and at the registers when you open it, you find if your discount is 20, 30 or 50%. It works on all items around the store: shoes, perfumes, clothes, on sale, not on sale, everything!

me (smiling while taking the envelope) thank you.

So I continued checking stuff around the store and ended up trying a sweater that was originally market $110, had been marked down to $79.99, and was now marked $64.99... so $32.50 was the lowest possible limit and $51.99 the highest. I decided to take it. As I walk to the cashiers, the envelope woman walks up to me again.

her excuse me ma'am, do you have one of... (I wave the sealed envelope) Good, good.

The discount was 30%. Total price $45.49. Tennessee sales tax is 9.25%. Total tender $49.70... not bad!

Numa sala perto de mim #144

The King's Speech (2010) tells the story of a king who was not supposed to be, at a time when his duties went well beyond looking straight in portraits and waving at crowds while smiling. Remarkable performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.

Made me think about two different things: (1) the difference between stammering and stuttering; (2) how speech difficulties are learned (after all no one is born with a stammer), what triggers them, the incredible hurdles one has to overcome to fight such problems, and how much a given person is predisposed to involuntarily follow that path.

Coisas que não mudam #153

Tragédias gregas

Filha sacrificada na guerra pelo pai, o rei. Filha salva secretamente pelos deuses e condenada a fazer sacrifícios humanos num templo longínquo para agradar aos deuses. Mulher, de desgosto, mata marido. Filho, de raiva, mata mãe e foge. Filha quase mata irmão até descobrir que se trata do próprio irmão. Trata-se afinal de uma tragédia grega com um invulgar final feliz em que pelo menos os filhos escapam.

Iphigénie en Tauride, live HD a partir do Met em Nova Iorque para todo o mundo. Este sábado com Susan Graham e Plácido Domingo (embora num sábado) como Iphigénie e Orestes... desta vez no Francês original.

Caprichos #158

Jewels, jewels, ah!

Apropos of Faust and the "Jewel song", or L'Air de Bijoux aria. I would go one step further and call it the vanity song/aria... ain't it marvelous, though?!

Ah! Je ris de me voir

si belle en ce mirroir,

Ah! Je ris de me voir

si belle en ce mirroir,

Est-ce toi, Marguerite,

est-ce toi?

Réponds-moi, reponds-moi

réponds, réponds, réponds vite!

Non! Non! Ce n'est plus toi!

Non... non,

ce n'est plus ton visage;

C'est la fille d'un roi,

c'est la fille dun roi!

Ce n'est plus toi,

ce n'est plus toi,

c'est la fille dun roi;

Qu'on salut au passage

Ah s'il etait ici!

S'il me voyait ainsi!

Comme une demoiselle,

il me trouverait belle, ah!

Comme une demoiselle,

il me trouverait belle,

Comme une demoiselle,

il me trouverait belle!

Marguerite ce n'est plus toi!

Ce n'est plus ton visage;

C'est la fille dun roi;

Qu'on salut au passage!

Espantos #284

The wind is strong. The rain is heavy. The sirens sound. Flash flood alerts are on. Tornado warning. Turned on the radio and the regular programming is interrupted. The weather center is offering live coverage and it's almost like a football match live report. Here are excerpts... there's a lot of vocabulary I do not understand.

We continue monitoring the storm for you, it's supposed to affect Perry county, Davidson county, Robertson county, Rutherford, Williamson county... The worst probably over in Belvue... Potential for rotation, straight line winds... Franklin should take cover now, it's really getting pounded with heavy rain... Dickson, Franklin, Cool Springs, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Lebanon... Knocking things down right and left... it's in Belmeade now, 7.6 miles southwest of Nashville and moving northeast fast... Damage is expected in the downtown Nashville area as the storm starts arriving now... It's going to be brief but it is going to intensify and the rains that are heavy now are about to become torrential... It's that sort of moment that you hold your breath and hopefully it is moving fast enough... if you are in your home stay away form the windows and in the lowest floor of your house, that's always the safest place... in downtown Nashville it's already beginning to head off... if you took cover, hold for another 10 minutes or so, so that the water gets off the streets... it's still about 25 minutes from Murfreesboro, 35 from Lebanon... numerous wind reports from various weather stations, 60-70 miles an hour, several trees down in several places... 24,000 people without power just in Davidson county... we will continue tracking the storm for you...

It was fast indeed!

Ditto #177

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.

--Charles Bukowski
________________

... and yet... which is good!

Numa sala perto de mim #143

The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher), best foreign language movie for 2007, tells the true story of "Operation Bernhard" the major counterfeiting operation taking place in the nazi concentration camp of Sachsenhausen.

The objective was to produce fake British pounds and American dollars in order to finance the German war effort. For that, the Germans hand-picked 142 Jewish prisoners with specific skills for the job (bankers, graphic experts and, of course, the major counterfeiter of all time Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch). These prisoners were given special treatment within the concentration camp: they listened to opera while working with the precise machinery; they slept in bunk beds with mattresses. It's a movie of repeated dramatic dilemmas.

Aglaia you could make a lot of money as an artist, you know?

Sally why should I make a lot of money making art, when I can make a lot of money making money? It's much easier!

Atirando sapatos...

Os episódios políticos que envolvem sapatos têm sido polémicos. Quem não se lembra daquele indivíduo que, em Dezembro de 2001 (já lá vão dez anos...) tentou activar explosivos escondidos nos sapatos em pleno voo? Certamente, ninguém se esquece dele nos aeroportos. E daquele outro homem que atirou dois sapatos a George Bush numa conferência de imprensa no Iraque em Dezembro de 2008?

Os recentes acontecimentos no Médio Oriente levaram a Economist a construir um índice de vulnerabilidade dos países à instabilidade política, ao qual deram o nome de "shoe thrower's index" (o índice do atirador de sapatos). Neste índice são tidos em conta vários indicadores que podem levar determinado país à instabilidade, como por exemplo a falta de democracia, a corrupção, ou duração do regime ditatorial. Os detalhes são discutidos aqui e o ranking final (Yemen, Líbia, Síria, Iraque, Egipto e Oman) dá que pensar.

No Times de hoje #125

Qaddafi's son made a televised speech warning his fellow Libyans that the green flag country would plunge into civil war if his father, in power for more than 40 years, were to be overthrown. This foreign plot is to be crushed with ensuing "rivers of blood".

A few days before stepping down Mubarak claimed on a televised speech that he "was never interested in being a dictator" after thirty years in power in which he "served Egypt and its people".

The problem of dictators is that they tend to think they are the saviours of the land. This is by no means new. Historically, absolutist governments (monarchs or not) have identified their best interests with the interests of their country... without ever asking their country what its best interest is. There's probably no better way of putting it than in seventeenth century absolutist France:

As Cardinal Richelieu, the creator of French absolutism, explained to his master Louis XIII, his policies were aimed at ensuring that his majesty was absolutely obeyed by great and small and at eliminating all rival centers of power and resistance: "to reduce and restrict those bodies which, because of their pretensions to sovereignty, always oppose the good of the realm." And "the good of the realm" meant "the will of the king" (...)*

Another potential problem is that we may be running out of places to exile so many dictators. Given that these people are not slowly dying, is it sensible to assume that there will be carefully designed plans to send every former absolute ruler to a luxurious clinic in the developed/democratic/former colonialist world, for a prolonged health check? Or will Saudi Arabia take them all willingly? After all, if they are able to flee, they seem to pay quite well!

___________

*De Long, Brad and Andrei Shleifer. "Princes and Merchants: City Growth Before the Industrial Revolution," The Journal of Law and Economics 36, 2 (1993): p. 679.

Numa sala perto de mim #142

The Illusionist (2010): animation; almost continuous music tune that sticks in your head as you walk out of the theatre; minimal dialogues à la Tati, who wrote the script. The movie tells the story of a lone and modest French magician in the late 1950s relegated to meager audiences in third rate theatres. Without much hope in life, he travels to England where he continues performing in empty theatres. On a trip to a small town in Scotland he meets a poor young girl who is convinced he is a real magician. She accompanies him from then on as the daughter he never had who adopts the father she never met. His life gains meaning, though it remains difficult. Hers follows an illusion only true to her.

Two notes: (1) the magician's name is Jacques Tatischeff; (2) after the last scene and before the credits the screen shows "To Sophie Taticheff".

A minha amante nos olhos sol não tem

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, Gustav Klimt

A minha amante nos olhos sol não tem,

mais rubro é o coral que a sua boca,

se a neve é branca, o peito é escuro e bem,

se há toucas de ouro, negro frio a touca,

Vi rosas brancas, rubras, clamascadas,

não tem rosas na face, ao contemplá-la,

e há essências que são mais delicadas

do que o bafo que a minha amante exala.

Gosto de ouvir-lhe a voz, contudo sei

da música mais doce a afinação,

e uma deusa a passar jamais olhei,

a minha amante a andar põe os pés no chão.

Creio no entanto o meu amor tão raro

quão falsas ilusões a que o comparo.

Shakespeare

EN-PT

Raro (adj.)
1. que aparece ou existe em pequena quantidade
2. pouco abundante
3. não frequente, invulgar
4. pouco denso, pouco espesso
5. (fig.) que tem muito mérito

6. (fig.) extraordinário, singular

Rare (adj.)

1. occurring far apart in time, unusual, uncommon
2. not widely distributed

3. having low density
4. marked by an uncommon quality
5. unusually excellent, admirable
6. valuable to a degree seldom found

Rare...

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912, Gustav Klimt

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXXX

Ditto #176

Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are mere isolated curiosities.

--Thomas Sowell

Numa sala perto de mim #141

Casablanca (1942). A história é por demais conhecida, pelo que não vale a pena sumarizála. Tampouco vale a pena lembrar as frases e as músicas que ficaram na história.

Gostei de ver pela primeira vez na grande tela e talvez por isso me questionei acerca da qualidade dos filmes antigos. Sem dúvida que a história é memorável e que o filme foi lançado em altura crítica, mas as imperfeições dos cenários são tão evidentes que ser a preto e branco é quase uma bênção. Talvez só agora essas imperfeições sejam notadas porque estamos tão habituados a ver filmes (ou séries televisivas) "perfeitos".

Mais ópera...

A ópera de John Adams Nixon in China retrata a visita do presidente Nixon à China em 1972, em plena guerra fria, sendo à altura Mao considerado um dos mais fortes inimigos americanos. Gostei especialmente do segundo acto e das cenas de bailado. Gostei também de, pela primeira vez, ver uma ópera cantada numa língua em que sou fluente. Foi também a primeira vez que assisti à transmissão em directo, e em alta definição, de uma produção do Met em Nova Iorque e recomendo vivamente.

Pensava eu que seria como ir à ópera: que a camera estaria fixa no fundo do teatro e que na tela do cinema se veria o palco. Mas não. É uma experiência bem mais parecida com o cinema. Dá para ver as expressões faciais e todos os movimentos em palco. É também possível ver a montagem dos cenários por trás do palco e de assistir a entrevistas nos intervalos, com o maestro (neste caso o próprio compositor John Adams), os actores/cantores, os coreógrafos, os designers, etc. Muito bom!

Caprichos #157

fresh feelings

Espantos #283

Para além da surpresa de ver tudo branco há qualquer coisa na neve que me fascina.

Penso que tem a ver com a sonoridade. Quando as condições são como acima se vê, isto é, quando toda e qualquer superfície está coberta por esta camada de água nem congelada nem líquida, os sons adquirem mais magnitude, não necessariamente em volume. Talvez em autenticidade. É difícil de descrever. Por exemplo, colocar alcatifa em determinada divisão da casa melhora-lhe a acústica, porque reduz o eco. Pois bem, aqui não é necessariamente o eco, mas qualquer som (vozes, pássaros, carros, passos) adquire um tom especial, como se pela primeira vez se ouvisse aquela voz, aquele pássaro, aquele carro, aqueles passos. Fantástico!

Coisas que não mudam #152

After the snow comes the ice... today the temperatures did not rise above 0C.

Depois da neve vem o gelo... hoje as temperaturas não subiram acima dos 0C.