I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.Well, it made me laugh. If you don't get it, I'm not going to explain.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.
Image by danagraves via FlickrLast night I spent the duration of an entire album ironing some stuff, and cutting the labels out of some T-shirts and jumpers with this sewing-kit sort of tool thingy made for unpicking stitches.
A nice rockin groove, and a video that would make Robert Palmer proud. What more could you ask?
Image via Wikipedia
Like that grand piazza, which Bernini designed in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, the enormous marble sculptures for which the artist is best known are for all practical purposes untransportable.
What does that leave? As it happens, a significant body of work: especially the portrait busts, a genre in which the young Bernini demonstrated that he was head and shoulders above the competition.
Image by fmc.nikon.d40 via Flickr
Domainr helps you find a domain name outside the usual .com, .org field, using lesser-known TLDs (like their own .nr).
Which means there are some unexpected results. For instance, sourgrap.es might be available in Spain. Wanna.be is definitely not available in Belgium. Arseband.it might be available, as might fucksta.in.
On a more elevated level, you might try tonybla.ir, or vladput.in, but don’t bother with sarahpal.in or johnmcca.in. oba.ma might be available or it might not. They’re not saying.
Hours of fun for a dreary winter evening.
The next big thing. Wait and see. You heard it here first.
Image via WikipediaSomebody had the brilliant idea of illustrating the comedy of Eddie Izzard with some animations done with Lego peeps. What could be more appropriate?
Cador said to him; ’tis now some considerable Time since, I have discover’d that secret Passion which you have foster’d in your Bosom, and yet endeavour’d to conceal even from your self. The Passions carry along with them such strong Impressions, that they cannot be conceal’d. Tell me ingenuously Zadig; and be your own Accuser, whether or no, since I have made this Discovery, the King has not shewn some visible Marks of his Resentment. He has no other Foible, but that of being the most jealous Mortal breathing. You take more Pains to check the Violence of your Passion, than the Queen herself does; because you are a Philosopher; because, in short, you are Zadig; Astarte is but a weak Woman; and tho’ her Eyes speak too visibly, and with too much Imprudence; yet she does not think her self blame-worthy. Being consciousIn other words, both Zadig and Astarte are in danger, he because he has done nothing wrong, and she because she doesn't recognise the wrong she's doing in being infatuated by Zadig. Were they both guilty, and felt guilty, they'd do a better job of covering their tracks, Cador explains.
of her Innocence, to her own Misfortune, as well as yours, she is too unguarded.
I tremble for her; because I am sensible her Conscience acquits her. Were you both agreed, you might conceal your Regard for each other from all the World: A rising Passion, that is smother’d, breaks out into a Flame; Love, when once gratified, knows how to conceal itself with Art.
"What are the main principles of a banana republic? A very salient one might be that it has a paper currency which is an international laughingstock: a definition that would immediately qualify today’s United States of America. We may snicker at the thriller from Wasilla, who got her first passport only last year, yet millions of once well-traveled Americans are now forced to ask if they can afford even the simplest overseas trip when their folding money is apparently issued by the Boardwalk press of Atlantic City. But still, the chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it. At all costs, therefore, the one principle that must not operate is the principle of accountability."
America the Banana Republic: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com
Image by Tonyç via FlickrSpeaking of SSC's (see previous post), here are two great sites for confessions:
Image via WikipediaGot a tumblelog? Back it up.
Image via WikipediaHere's a list of skills which Popular Mechanics thinks every man should be able to perform. I don't know what they expect from women.
The third of the four so-called Last Songs by Richard Strauss (not to be confused with the Strausses of Vienna), this is a setting of words by Hermann Hesse, and quite possibly the most beautiful song ever written. The words, which I’ve translated below with the help of Google, speak of falling asleep, but they are also about dying. Strauss wrote the Four Last Songs in 1948, when he was 84. He died in 1949.
The video is one of several available, and features Lucia Popp.
Nun der Tag mich müd' gemacht,
soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.
Hände, laßt von allem Tun,
Stirn, vergiß du alles Denken,
alle meine Sinne nun
Wollen sich in Schlummer senken.
Und die Seele unbewacht,
Will in freien Flügen schweben,
Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
tief und tausendfach zu leben.
On going to sleep
Now the day has wearied me
My eager desire is to be received,
Welcomed by the starry night
like a tired child.
Hands, leave everything;
Mind, forget all thought.
All my senses now wish
Is to sink into slumber.
And the unfettered soul,
Floats in free flight,
To live deeper, a thousand-fold,
In the magic circle of the night.
Image by yourbartender via Flickr
I’ve been looking at the website of one of the mothers of some little kids at Boy Ten’s school. Jo Govaerts is a Flemish poet and writer, and some of her work is listed there. I think she’s pretty bloody good, and of course I'm missing half of it.
She won't mind if I reproduce one very short one, with a rough translation by me, from her 1989 collection De twijfelaar, published when she was only 17 (her first collection was published at the age of 14):
Ook duiven kwamen eens
aan land gekropen
met de logge poten van
een amfibie. Misschien
wilden ze sterker
hoopten ze harder
geloofden ze meer.
Doves too once came
crawling onto land
on the sluggish legs
of an amphibian. Maybe
their desire was greater
their hope was harder
their belief more strong.
Image by sarmax via Flickr
I’m not a nice person. All those things I did you thought were nice, they were all planned, thought-out, rehearsed. I did it to make you like me. I know what works and what doesn’t.
On the other hand:
Even fake kindness is better than no kindness at all.
