Pormenores #26

Large outdoor -- Canal st., NYC

(publicidade feita de mudança)

Espantos #115

Gasolineira? Não.

Portagem? Também não!

Multibanco senhores, multibanco!
Três máquinas para carros, uma para pessoas. E viva a cultura do carro!

Coisas que não mudam #42

A Thousand Splendid Suns conta a história de um país atormentado por décadas de guerra que necessariamente marca as personagens de forma indelével. Em tantas passagens os sentimentos descritos podiam ser meus ou de pessoas que conheço e felizmente nunca vivi uma guerra... se pudessem escolher, muitos dos Afegãos também não as teriam vivido. Fica parte de um poema que descreve Kabul:

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.

Espantos #114

Kirkland Hall, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Fairy tale-like houses

Ditto #75

How inappropriate to call this planet earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

--Arthur C. Clarke

Palavras lidas #47

“I missed you.”
There was a pause. Then Tariq turned to her with half-grinning, half-grimacing look of distaste. “What’s the matter with you?”
How many times had she, Hasina, and Giti said those same three words to each other, Laila wondered, said it without hesitation, after only two or three days of not seeing each other? I missed you, Hasina. Oh, I missed you too. In Tariq’s grimace, Laila learned that boys differed from girls in this regard. They didn’t make show of friendship. They felt no urge, no need, for this sort of talk. Laila imagined it had been this way for her brothers too. Boys, Laila came to see, treated friendship the way they treated the sun: its existence undisputed; its radiance best enjoyed, not beheld directly.

____________

p. 119

Numa sala perto de mim #60

Radio Cape Cod, simples, refrescante e ao mesmo tempo tão real que podia mesmo ser verdade. Filmado em Cape Cod e só pela imagem (a fazer lembrar Hopper) vale a pena ver!

Espantos #113

Situation: I'm walking down a bike-walk-run trail by the Charles river. It's sunny and pleasant and there are lots of people out enjoying the good weather. A mother walks together with her two children, a boy of about 6 and a girl of about 4, both on small bikes. His, is a miniature of a mountain bike suited for his age. Hers, is smaller and pink with side wheels. The kids are excited to be biking. The boy goes slightly faster than the girl but both go ahead of the mom. None gets too far, but the mother is worried that they will, if not warned. The dialogue followed.

mom (in a loud voice to be heard ahead) kids, stop by the trash can on the left.
girl (yelling, pedaling and not looking back) whaaat's thaaaa leeeeft?

Parece que estou a ouvir #60

New Soul
Yael Naim

I'm a new soul
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take
But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake

La, la, la, la (21x)
La, la, la, la (21x)

See I'm a young soul in this very strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout what is true and fake
But why all this hate? try to communicate
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make

La, la, la, la (21x)
La, la, la, la (21x)

This is a happy end
Cause you don't understand
Everything you have done
Why's everything so wrong

This is a happy end
Come and give me your hand
I'll take you far away

I'm a new soul
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take
But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear
Finding myself making every possible mistake

New soul... (la, la, la, la,...)
In this very strange world...
Every possible mistake
Possible mistake
Every possible mistake
Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes...
_________________

"Finding myself making every possible mistake"... the lyrics are not the most uplifting ones, but the music is indeed. I can hear myself singing la la laaaaa la lala for the rest of the day. Also known as (aka) the song from the Macbook Air commercial.

Ditto #74

The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.

-- George F. Will

_______________

well... in this perspective life can even be rosy :-)

Child...

Smiling Child at a Window, Murillo

O, that you were yourself! but, love, you are
No longer yours than you yourself here live:
Against this coming end you should prepare,
And your sweet semblance to some other give.
So should that beauty which you hold in lease
Find no determination: then you were
Yourself again after yourself's decease,
When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear.
Who lets so fair a house fall to decay,
Which husbandry in honour might uphold
Against the stormy gusts of winter's day
And barren rage of death's eternal cold?
O, none but unthrifts! Dear my love, you know
You had a father: let your son say so.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIII

Parece que estou a ouvir #59

When It's Cold I'd Like To Die*
Moby

Where were you when I was lonesome?
Locked away with freezing cold
Someone flying only stolen
I can't tell this light so old

I don't want to swim the ocean
I don't want to fight the tide
I don't want to swim forever
When it's cold I'd like to die

What was that my sweet sweet nothing?
I can't hear you through the fog
If I holler let me go
If I falter let me know

I don't want to swim forever
I don't want to fight the tide
I don't want to swim the ocean
When it's cold I'd like to die

I don't want to swim the ocean
I don't want to figh the tide
__________

* could well be Portuguese :-)

Coisas que não mudam #41

@ dinner, the conversation was about portuguese culture, background music was Meu Alentejo by Dulce Pontes

she Why are the Portuguese depressed?
me Think about this. A small country fights hard to be different from its much larger neighbor and ends up controlling the world. The good fortune is short lived and this small country loses every single stronghold one by one returning to the place it deserves. Wouldn't you look to the past with nostalgia and melancholy? Now, add to this the effects of feeding a world empire: how many people were sent in ships to never come back? How many lives were given up for the higher objective? Remember, it's a tiny country. You can see this sad, nostalgic pattern in the literature, and in the music over and over. There are pieces by Camões, Pessoa, or Amália that can be described in one word: Portugal. The behavior towards loss is strikingly different. Frankly, I think some of my attitudes towards life are deeply influenced by my nationality... somethings never change.

Espantos #112

1. Ir com uma amiga vegetariana a um restaurante português.
2. Olhar para o menu e não ver alternativas.
3. Vir o dono do restaurante dizer que o cozinheiro faz um prato com os vegetais que tiver na cozinha.
4. Ser banqueteada com este festim de vegetais ;-)

Foi neste dia #97 (1953)

Faz hoje 55 anos que o Neozelandês Edmund Hillary e o sherpa Nepalês Tenzing Norgay subiram pela primeira vez ao Monte Everest, concluindo uma série de tentativas falhadas de atingir o cume da montanha. A primeira dessas tentativas, em 1922, foi encabeçada por George Mallory que quando questionado sobre o porquê de tal tentativa megalómana terá respondido "because it's there", inspirando montanheiros de todos os tempos. Mallory desapareceu algures na face Nordeste da grande montanha em Junho de 1924. O seu corpo só foi encontrado em 1999, nunca se sabendo se terá morrido antes de chegar ao topo ou já na fase descendente.

Ditto #73

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.

-- Charles Kingsley

Foi neste dia #96 (1869)

Boston University was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 139 years ago.

Parece que estou a ouvir #58

GUILTY
Ella Fitzgerald

Is it a sin? Is it a crime?
Loving you dear like I do.
If it's a crime then I'm guilty.
Guilty of loving you.

Maybe I'm wrong dreaming of you
Dreaming the lonely night through
If it's a crime then I'm guilty
Guilty of dreaming of you

What can I do? What can I say
After I've taken the blame?
You say you're through, you'll go your way.
But I'll always feel just the same.

Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong
Loving you dear like I do.
If it's a crime, then I'm guilty.
Guilty of loving you.

(Instrumental Interlude)

What can I do? And what can I say
After I've taken the blame?
You say you're through, you'll go your way.
But I'll always feel just the same.

Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong
Loving you dear like I do.
If it's a crime, then I'm guilty.
Guilty of loving you.

Caprichos #47

duas baleias do aquário :-)

Coisas que não mudam #40

New England Aquarium

Somos nós a ver os peixes ou eles a verem-nos a nós?