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May 21, 2006
Book Bliss
Associação de Loucos e Sonhadores, Lisboa
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Finally read Vonnegut's SlaughterHouse 5. My mouth is open in amazement. I love the simple and yet powerful and imaginative writing. Fascinated by the Tralfamadorian concept of time. (sighs with pleasure)
Now I can't hear anyone talking about death without thinking: "So it goes".
Can't wait to get my hands on Cat's Cradle.
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One of those happy succession of synchronicities led me to Enrique Vila-Matas. His name came up at least once every day of this past week, through friends, articles in newspapers, referenced in books I was reading and culminated on the happy, thrifty find of a set of 6 of his books for 18 Euros at FNAC.
The sheer erudition of the man. Pure intellectual bliss and aesthetic enjoyment. So happy.
Also, he writes beautifully about Lisboa:
Lisboa es el nada nunca jamás. Lisboa es para llorar, puro destino y llanto, fado y luz de lágrima. Pero al mismo tiempo es una inmersión radical en la alegría. “Otra vez vuelvo a verte, / ciudad de mi infancia pavorosamente perdida /Ciudad triste y alegre, otra vez sueño aquí”. No es la ciudad blanca que creyó ver un suizo equivocado, sino una ciudad azul de alegres nostalgias inventadas.
Lisbon is nothing never ever. Lisbon is for crying, pure destiny and weeping, fado and light of tears. But at the same time is a radical immersion in joy. "I see you once again, / city of my dreadfully lost childhood / Sad and happy city where I dream again". It is not the white city that a mistaken Swiss thought he saw, but a blue city of cheerful invented nostalgia.
The original text is here (in spanish).
(((((())))))
Posted by claudia Permalink | Comments (2)
May 16, 2006
Always learning from the new kids at work.
Recent hire: "Hey, your laptop's got a clitoris mouse!"
Claudia:"What? Ah! Shhhh!......" (bursts into laughter)
+++++
For the clueless: I've posted this extremely pedagogic one before and now this helpful diagram. And I can't resist posting this very entertaining one, just for fun ;-)
Posted by claudia Permalink | Comments (7)
May 15, 2006
Labyrinths
El laberinto de la soledad / The labyrinth of solitude - Octavio Paz
O labirinto da saudade / The labyrinth of saudade - Eduardo Lourenco
A Mexican poet and a Portuguese philosopher. Both tried to put into an essay what means to belong or to be born in their respective countries.
I like it how soledad and saudade sound similar but carry different meanings. Soledad meaning solitude and saudade being that very Portuguese word for the longing for other person or time that is gone.
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May 10, 2006
Favourite name for....
...a video store
...an optics store
...a costume shop
....a pizza place
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May 07, 2006
Edward Hopper
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May 05, 2006
I'm Not Your Sweet Baboo!
Went to Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, California. As most cartoon museums do, they hang cartoon strips on the walls, exhibit art inspired by Peanuts and keep the office of the cartoonist like it was a shrine and nothing else much.
A lady there made sure she told us everything she knew about Schulz and his family and each time we'd say "Thanks" and made that classic body move of someone who wants to go on with the visit, she'd come up with some new anedocte until some other suckers, ahem, tourists drawed her attention. One of Schulz's daughters was on Ice Capades so I guess that's where the idea for "Snoopy on Ice" came from :-).
Highlight of the museum: Snoopy's doghouse wrapped by Christo.
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And this post wouldn't be complete without this:
Which Peanuts character are you?
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