Retirado do contexto #208

Compliment of the day:

The Israeli army can definitely use your services! (Maybe other armies as well but I only know the Israeli one)

I have never touched a gun, have no particularly notable athletic abilities, nor was I ever trained in personal defense. But apparently I have good coordination skills especially with respect to people. I have been called bossy before, and not seldom. I find this polite form of putting it quite endearing... more than ever I take it as a compliment!

Numa sala perto de mim #320

Buena Vista Social Club (1998) visto mais uma vez dá a mesma sensação que da vez primeira; mas há pensamentos que se refinam. 

O monumental atraso e a manifesta pobreza (ofertas do comunismo) em Havana contrastam com a felicidade genuína de pessoas simples que se conformam com o pouco que têm e afirmam não precisar de mais. Pena essas mesmas pessoas não se encontrarem naquela situação por escolha própria. A contradição inata dos regimes totalitários (quaisquer que eles sejam) é mesmo essa: arrogam-se de serem claramente melhores que quaisquer outros regimes, à custa da opressão de quem discorde.

Numa sala perto de mim #319

All Things Must Pass: the rise and fall of Tower Records (2015) tells the story of the largest retail music chain of all time, which made $1b in sales in 1999 and in 2006 filed for bankruptcy. I recall the gigantic New York store in the year 2000 at the corner of Broadway and East Fourth across the street from NYU. I arrived in Nashville in 2008 when Tower Records was gone but apparently their midtown store was on West End Avenue, right across from Vanderbilt.

Foi neste dia #270 (1938)

77 years ago attacks on Jewish stores, homes, and synagogues in Germany and Austria resulted in great destruction and loss of life. Events on Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass) were instigated by Nazi authorities in the sequence of the assassination of a German embassy official in Paris by a Polish Jew. In the words of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda: 

"the Führer has decided that (…) demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the Party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered."

Living conditions for Jews in Nazi-controlled areas became unbearable. The press of the time was not indifferent but the world remained numb to the dramatic plight of refugees.

Há 77 anos os ataques a sinagogas, lojas e casas de Judeus na Alemanha e na Austria trouxeram grande destruição e perda de vidas humanas. Os eventos da Kristallnacht (ou noite dos cristais) foram instigados pelas autoridades nazis na sequência do assassinato de um oficial da embaixada alemã em Paris por um judeu polaco. Nas palavras do ministro da propaganda nazi Joseph Goebbels:

"o Führer decidiu que (…) o Partido não irá preparar nem organizar manifestações, mas se estas surgirem espontaneamente não serão impedidas."

As condições de vida dos Judeus residentes em áreas controladas por Nazis tornaram-se insustentáveis. A imprensa da época não ficou indiferente, mas o mundo continuou sem resposta para a dramática situação dos refugiados.

Retirado do contexto #207

É bom respirar facilmente

Numa sala perto de mim #318

Suffragette (2015) focuses on the fight of British women for the right to vote. Determination, solidarity, hard choices, and a lot suffering... not an uplifting story, but it needs to be told.

Espantos #456

I pass through this same place everyday but today I read the plaque that I usually don't have time to look at. It is a memory of the time that free-range livestock roamed around so fences and gates were necessary to keep it out of campus.

Passo neste exacto local todos os dias, mas hoje olhei para a placa que normalmente ignoro porque não tenho tempo de ler. É a memória de um tempo passado quando animais do campo andavam livremente pela área fazendo necessárias cercas e portões para que se mantivessem fora do campus.

Foi neste dia #269 (1975)

O célebre "olhe que não, olhe que não..." foi há 40 anos, depois de um abraço memorável que não provou duradouro. 

Ditto #313

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.

--Will Rogers, born November 4th 1879

Caprichos #388

Flores molhadas pela maresia da manhã

Ditto #312

A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

--Arthur Schopenhauer

Espantos #455

Há 260 anos, Lisboa ainda ardia depois do terramoto do dia anterior

260 years ago, Lisbon was still burning after the quake of the day before 

Cores de Outono #34

Folhas isoladas que se destacam

e cenários que lembram um quadro de Klimt

Lonely leaves that stand out

and scenarios that remind a Klimt painting

Espantos #454

Cogumelos de várias core e feitos no trilho da manhã

Mushrooms of various colors and shapes on the morning trail

Espantos #453

São Patrício no Outono... ou o musgo que o faz lembrar

Numa sala perto de mim #317

Bridge of Spies (2015) tells the story of a prisoner exchange at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge in 1962 in the midst of the Cold War and the recently constructed Berlin Wall. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks never disappoint.

Parece que estou a ouvir #210

Foi assim, numa escola alentejana, no dia em que foi reconhecido o cante alentejano como Património da Humanidade.

Numa sala perto de mim #316

Fantasia (1940) allies Walt Disney's imagination with Leopold Stokowski's adaptation of the classics. Of the many memorable scenes, perhaps the most striking is the one that gets ostriches, hippos, elephants, and crocodiles elegantly dancing in ballet shoes.

Ditto #311

Television makes so much at its worst, that it can't afford to do its best.

--Fred W. Friendly

Numa sala perto de mim #315

Meet the Patels (2015) is a documentary movie about cultural values, assimilation, family, and feelings. The generational conflict between what parents believe it's best for their children and what children believe is best for themselves is not new. But the context of Indian-born (and raised) parents living in the US where their children were born and raised makes the whole problem a lot more complex. There are quite a few funny scenes but there are also many difficult moments where cultural traditions or family support take the central stage.