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Revisiting the subject of my last post, here is an old live recording of the Italian singer Milva together with Astor Piazzolla, interpreting Los Pájaros Perdidos. If the words are magnificent, the music is simply celestial.

“Amo a los pájaros perdidos
que vuelan desde el más allá
a confundirse con un cielo
que nunca más podre recuperar.

Vuelven de nuevo los recuerdos
las horas jóvenes que di
y desde el mar llega un fantasma
hecho de cosas que ame y perdí.

Todo fue un sueño
un sueño que perdimos
como perdimos
los pájaros y el mar.

Un sueño breve y antiguo
como el tiempo
que los espejos
no pueden reflejar.

Después busqué
perderte en tantas otras
y aquella otra
y todas eras vos.

Al fin logré reconocer
cuando un adiós es un adiós
la soledad me devoró y fuimos dos.

Vuelven los pájaros nocturnos
que vuelan ciegos sobre el mar;
la noche entera es un espejo
que me devuelve tu soledad.

Soy sólo un pajaro perdido
que vuelve desde el más allá
a confundirse con un cielo
que nunca más podre recuperar.”

(Astor Piazzolla, in Los pájaros perdidos)

If you are into photography, and independently of your political opinions, you will very certainly enjoy Rachel Papo intimate portrait of women serving in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces). Israel is one of the few countries with compulsory military service for women, and one of the only countries that allows women in infantry combatant service if they volunteer.

You can find Rachel’s full photo series, bio, and artist statement on her project Web site www.serialno3817131.com.

The world’s longest running soap opera has ended after over 15 700 episodes.From this BBC article:

The world’s longest running soap opera has been screened for the last time, having been on air in the US for more than 70 years.

The show won dozens of awards in its seven-decade span and ran up more 15,700 episodes, each ending in a cliffhanger.

So, what will they put in its place? Another example of mind numbing filler of contemporary TV, the Let’s Make a Deal game show.

Look at the following moving picture. If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, you will only see pink. But if you stare at the back on the center, the moving dot becomes green.

Wait, there is more. If you concentrate for some time on the black at the center of the picture, all the pink dots will eventually disappear, leaving only a green dot rotating.

Aren’t optical illusions fun?

“Cold on my narrow cot I lie
and in sorrow look
through my window-square of black:

figured in the midnight sky,
a mosaic of stars
diagrams the falling years,

while from the moon, my lover’s eye
chills me to death
with radiance of his frozen faith.

Once I wounded him with so
small a thorn
I never thought his flesh would burn

or that the heat within would grow
until he stood
incandescent as a god;

now there is nowhere I can go
to hide from him:
moon and sun reflect his flame.

In the morning all shall be
the same again:
stars pale before the angry dawn;

the gilded cock will turn for me
the rack of time
until the peak of noon has come

and by that glare, my love will see
how I am still
blazing in my golden hell.”

(Sylvia Plath)

PS: Read it in Swedish today while on the tram, and just had to look for the original.

I recently have been listening quite frequently to David Bowie’s “Low” album, released in 1977. It was one of his most influential albums, and was completed in collaboration with Brian Eno, another one of my most liked musicians.

“Warszawa” is one of my favourite pieces in the album. Mostly instrumental, this arrangement is meant to evoke the desolation of Warsaw at the time of Bowie’s visit in 1973. In my opinion, it evokes all desolation, anywhere.

O Observatório da Emigração, organização criada em 2008 para produzir e disponibilizar informação sobre a evolução e as características da emigração e das comunidades portuguesas, e contribuir para a definição de políticas públicas neste domínio, publicou pela primeira vez os resultados do seu trabalho.

França é o principal destino dos emigrantes portugueses, o que não surpreende ninguém. O que é interessante é ver o Reino Unido a tornar-se nos últimos anos um destino de eleição, tendo ultrapassado a Venezuela em número de emigrantes.

E a Suécia? Em 2008, consta aqui, tinha 2774 cidadãos nascidos em Portugal, de um total de 1.281.581 imigrantes, ou seja, 14% da população.

Question: Can you find true love on the internet?

Answer: In your dreams.

True Love On The Internet