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October 31, 2006
The Pequod Meets the Jeroboam. Her Story,
Frank Stella (Moby Dick Series)
"It seemed that the Jeroboam had not long left home, when upon speaking a whale-ship, her people were reliably apprised of the existence of Moby Dick, and the havoc he had made. Greedily sucking in this intelligence, Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against attacking the white whale, in case the monster should be seen; in his gibbering insanity, pronouncing the White Whale to be no less a being than the Shaker God incarnated; the Shakers receiving the Bible. But when, some year or two afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted from the mast-heads, Macey, the chief mate, burned with ardor to encounter him; and the captain himself being not unwilling to let him have the opportunity, despite all the archangel's denunciations and forewarnings, Macey succeeded in persuading five men to man his boat. With them he pushed off; and, after much weary pulling, and many perilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last succeeded in getting one iron fast. Meantime, Gabriel, ascending to the main-royal mast-head, was tossing one arm in frantic gestures, and hurling forth prophecies of speedy doom to the sacrilegious assailants of his divinity. Now, while Macey, the mate, was standing up in his boat's bow, and with all the reckless energy of his tribe was venting his wild exclamations upon the whale, and essaying to get a fair chance for his poised lance, lo! a broad white shadow rose from the sea; by its quick, fanning motion, temporarily taking the breath out of the bodies of the oarsmen. Next instant, the luckless mate, so full of furious life, was smitten bodily into the air, and making a long arc in his descent, fell into the sea at the distance of about fifty yards. Not a chip of the boat was harmed, nor a hair of any oarsman's head; but the mate for ever sank."
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October 30, 2006
In March the gypsies returned. This time they brought a telescope and a magnifying glass the size of a drum, which they exhibited as the latest invention of the jews of Amsterdam. They placed one gypsy woman at the end of the village and set up the telescope at the entrance of the tent. For the price of five reales, people could look into the telescope and see the gypsy woman an arm's length away. "Science has eliminated distance" Melquíades proclaimed "In a short time, man will be able to see what is happening in any place in the world without leaving his own house".
---G.G.Marquez, One hundred years of solitude
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from Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say by Gillian Wearing
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Image and sounds are not enough to shorten distances.
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October 26, 2006
Rigo is in Lisboa! How funny, the artist I "found" in San Francisco last July is suddenly paining murals here - for the first time I think.
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October 25, 2006
Adam Cvijanovic, Love Poem (10 minutes after the end of gravity), 2005 (detail)
I need to go to the new Saatchi...
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October 24, 2006
At the aftermath of the recent spanish changes, there's an ongoing debate about gay marriage here with the government dismissing it as not important at this time and as being a dividing issue.
I can't resist to summarize this three-fold comment by Miguel Vale de Almeida on the recent polls in which some newspapers/TV stations have asked random people if they agreed with same sex marriage - to which a vast majority of Portuguese people said no.
- the right to same sex marriage is a political one and not just a law issue or a moral issue: its denial goes to show how citizens are not treated equally before the law thus going against the Portuguese Constitution;
- on surveys about "values" they never ask if the respondent agrees with the situation of there being so few rich people and so many poor ones: it's a given fact, it's not questionable;
- why not come up with a survey to see if Portuguese people agree with letting women vote (they should be given alternatives such as "Yes, but their vote only should count as half" or "Yes, with the bulletin pre-filled by their husbands"); no one asks this because the right of women to vote is not a "values" related issue, it's the product of an unquestionable right to being treated equally.
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“I will never understand those who proclaim love as the foundation of life, while denying so radically protection, understanding and affection to our neighbors, our friends, our relatives, our colleagues. What kind of love is this that excludes those who experience their sexuality in a different way?”
— José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s Prime Minister, May 11, 2005
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“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”
— Voltaire
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“Same-sex relationships have long been part of our African history and heritage. There is ample research illustrating that African people have loved and had sexual relationships with people of the same sex for hundreds of years. For example, in Namibia, Kenya, Nigeria and SA, bond friendships, ancestral wives, female husbands and male wives have existed for centuries as forms of same-sex relationships.
All these relationships were accepted and respected in Africa, long before Africa was colonised. In addition, these forms of partnerships and marriages were protected by common law. Same-sex practices have always been a part of our sexual desires, intimacy and practice. In SA, the practice has been traced among the Zulu, Lovedu, Sotho, Tswana and Venda tribes. It is important to understand the traditional and cultural institutions that form families, marriages, and clans before we pronounce on these matters.
There is no record of traditional African societies legislating against homosexuality. Such laws are a western import, manifested through colonial penal codes and the criminalisation of sodomy across the continent. So, one could argue with authority that it is homophobia, not homosexuality, that is un-African.”
— Fikile Vilakazi, editorial: “Protect South Africa from Sexual Apartheid”
in Business Day, September 7, 2006
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October 23, 2006
Engraving from "Selenografia sive Lunae Descriptio" by Johannes Hevelius, 1647
From the many things that I've learned on this weekend's astronomy class- from equinoxes and the earth's orbit to parsecs and how to determine the latitude based on the North star, I know the ones that will last longer is the fact that I need to go to the southern hemisphere again since I've failed to notice Magellan's clouds before, the very poetic and intriguing thought that one is looking at the past when one looks at the sky and how Camões' Lusiads is filled with pieces of geocentric astronomy theory.
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Por este largo mar enfim me alongo Do conhecido pólo de Calisto, Tendo o término ardente já passado, Onde o meio do mundo é limitado. Já descoberto tínhamos diante, Assim passando aquelas regiões | From this open sea I looked my last At the constellations of the North. For we had by now crossed the burning line Which marks division in the earth's design. Our sailors had discovered long since By now we had left behind both tropics |
Os Lusíadas, Canto V
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October 15, 2006
I'm jammed between Heidegger who was a boozy beggar, Nietzsche (there's nothing he couldn't teach ya about the raisin' of the wrist) and Benjamin whose name doesn't rhyme with any thing doing with drinking alcohol and therefore wasn't included in the Monty Python song. Hmmm. Maybe "Walter Benjamin would get suicidal with only a bottle of gin".
I'm pondering whether I should dip into the thick prose of "Time and Being" or just cut and dress old Martin Heidegger up.
(from the man who fell asleep)
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October 07, 2006
Birthday Girl
By the time this pre-scheduled entry is posted automatically, I'll have been away for some days and will be enjoying my 31st birthday in the middle of quiet Alentejo, reading the pile of books that my ongoing amazon shopping spree has provided and cherishing the gifts that have been sent from the other side of the Atlantic, a heartwarming array of pleasures (including a compass from a very special pirate shop). Oh, and I probably will have gained a few pounds from all the pancake eating!
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October 02, 2006
My theory, which is mine.
I was delighted to read Ricardo's post about Shakespeare and how one astrophysicist is claiming that by studying the astronomic events mentioned on his plays one can determine not the years during which he lived but rather the ones in which he didn't.
Many scholars have been researching the true identity of Shakespeare and there is a strong current in favour of naming Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the true author of the works. Many historians have also presumed he was the secret son of Queen Elizabeth I.
My own pet theory is that the only person to live at that time, that knew all the royal court's intrigues, who was in a position to know about the letter Christopher Hatton, Vice-Chamberlain, wrote to the queen and which is parodied on Twelfth Night, and who had enough time in her hands to come up with so many rhymes, was Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen herself!!!!
But...there's more.
Were Liz and Ed ever seen together in the same room? De Vere was appointed as a royal ward in the household of William Cecil, the Queen's most trusted and closest advisor. De Vere's mother wrote to Cecil:
“I confess that a great trust has been committed to me of those things which, in my Lord’s lifetime, were kept most secret from me”.
My own conclusion? The Queen and the Earl were one and the same person!!!!!! So Elizabeth was a transvestite which can explain why she never married or had any children: she secretly wanted to be a man but at the time there was no such thing as sex change surgery!
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There's nothing quite as liberating as making public an outrageous pet theory :)
A special thanks to my research associate Ricardo! We could write a Dan Brown style book on this and make money!
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