My Blog

Something quirky and original, from Ólöf Arnalds. Speaking of quirky, Björk’s voice is in there, too. There must be something wonderful in that volcanic water of Iceland.

Surge Janeiro frio e pardacento,
Descem da serra os lobos ao povoado;
Assentam-se os fantoches em São Bento
E o Decreto da fome é publicado.

Edita-se a novela do Orçamento;
Cresce a miséria ao povo amordaçado;
Mas os biltres do novo parlamento
Usufruem seis contos de ordenado.

E enquanto à fome o povo se estiola,
Certo santo pupilo de Loyola,
Mistura de judeu e de vilão,

Também faz o pequeno “sacrifício”
De trinta contos – só! – por seu ofício
Receber, a bem dele… e da nação.

(José Régio, 1969)

One more iamamiwhoami video released. Any doubts about Jonna Lee being behind it?

If you had the choice of two women to wed,
(Though of course the idea is quite absurd)
And the first from her heels to her dainty head
Was charming in every sense of the word:
And yet in the past (I grieve to state),
She never had been exactly “straight”.

And the second — she was beyond all cavil,
A model of virtue, I must confess;
And yet, alas! she was dull as the devil,
And rather a dowd in the way of dress;
Though what she was lacking in wit and beauty,
She more than made up for in “sense of duty”.

Now, suppose you must wed, and make no blunder,
And either would love you, and let you win her –
Which of the two would you choose, I wonder,
The stolid saint or the sparkling sinner?

(Robert William Service)

Fell in love with this song from Irya’s Playground, a Swedish band. Got to love Irya Gmeyners’ (the vocalist) voice.

Why is the word yes so brief?
It should be
the longest,
the hardest,
so that you could not decide in an instant to say it,
so that upon reflection you could stop
in the middle of saying it.

(Vera Pavlova)

I must admit that, having played the game and paid the price, this Valentine’s Day (business) affair is all good by me. But what they don’t tell you on those cheerful cards is that Saint Valentine was eventually imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and beheaded. Swedes got it right, they call the day Alla hjärtans dag, or Day of all hearts. Sounds much safer, right? Right.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.