My Blog

Recomeça…
Se puderes,
Sem angústia e sem pressa.

E os passos que deres
Nesse caminho duro
Do futuro
Dá-os em liberdade.

Enquanto não alcances
Não descanses.

De nenhum fruto queiras só metade.
E, nunca saciado
Vai colhendo
Ilusões sucessivas no pomar
Sempre a sonhar
E vendo
Acordado,
O logro da aventura.

És homem, não te esqueças!
Só é tua a loucura
Onde com lucidez, te reconheças.

(Miguel Torga, Diário XIII)

To my family and friends, in this special season, I wish prosperity, happiness, and above all, that you have a whole lot of fun. A good Christmas to all, and an excellent year of 2010.

By the way, I leave you some suggestions of last hour presents, at bargain prices:

To the enemy, I suggest forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To friends, our heart.
To a customer, service.
For everything, there’s charity.
Children deserve good role models.
To the rest, plenty of respect.

Pedro (in Gothenburg)

Winter is here – Let us welcome him on,
Remember Old Christmas is near;
And when Christmas with all his gay feasting has gone,
Why then we’ve the merry New Year;
Here’s a health to the rich who will give to the poor,
Let Plenty and Mercy ne’er part,
And though bitter winds blow through the white clouds of snow,
No Winter shall fall on the heart.

(Eliza Cook)

Here is a cartoonish view on what we might expect at the world stage from the second decade of this century, taken from this week’s edition of The Economist. One of the best cartoons by KAL i’ve seen as a subscriber in months, I should add.

One of my favorite Jazz tracks, from The Dave Brubeck Quartet. This particular piece is from 1964, and it is the last song of the Jazz Impressions of Japan LP.  Woke up with it in my head, and I’m hopeful it will serve me well during the day.

Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us; then I sigh
for the moon cannot drink,
and my shadow goes emptily along
with me never saying a word;
with no other friends here, I can
but use these two for company;
in the time of happiness, I
too must be happy with all
around me; I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon
accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me; while
still not drunk, I am glad
to make the moon and my shadow
into friends, but then when
I have drunk too much, we
all part; yet these are
friends I can always count on
these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day
we three will meet again,
deep in the Milky Way.

(Li Po)

Good news. The test sample of my book finally arrived this weekend. I had to delve deep into the industrial area of Gothenburg looking for some well hidden Fedex facility, but one hour later had in my possession a nondescript cardboard package full of air bubble wrapping.  Needless to say I was feeling like a child opening a long awaited present.

My overall impression is that it is solid product with high quality finishing. And all the issues I found except one can be quickly ironed before the final print run. Anyway, that is the purpose of the test copy, to spot and fix those issues before going forward.

And now? A few extra hours of work and I will send for the final print run. The books won’t be available before Christmas as first intended, true, but that is the price to pay for getting things to high standards and feeling good about them.

(click to zoom)

A somewhat fast paced interpretation of Erik Saties’ Gnossienne Nr. 1, to liven up the day. And besides, as Erik Satie once said to a critic, tempo is set by the mood on the interpreter.

Some photos (taken with a mobile phone, sorry) of my home music studio, just for the kick of it. The midi keyboard is the pièce de résistance, and it is this years birthday present  to myself. You can rest assured I deserved it.

In the bottom you can see, to the left, the editing monitor. It is here music is prepared, cut and edited. To the right there is the monitor with the virtual instruments (a midi keyboard is basically “dumb”, as it expects the computer to generate the sound when a key is pressed), as well as the music sheet or any support program.

(click to zoom)

Esta manhã gostaria de ter dado ontem
um grande passeio àquela praia
onde ontem por sinal passei o dia
É difícil a vida dos homens senhor
Os anjos tinham outras possibilidades
e alguns deles foi o que tu sabes
Esta terra não está feita para nós
Mesmo que ela fosse diferente
nós quereríamos talvez outra terra
talvez esta de que agora dispomos
Não achas meu senhor que temos braços a mais
dias a mais complicações a mais?
Pra nascer e morrer seria necessário tanto?
Falhamos tantas vezes (Como os judeus que juraram
não comer nem beber até matar paulo
e apesar disso não o mataram)
É difícil a vida difícil a morte.
Por vezes os homens juntam-se todos
ou quase todos e organizam
grandes manifestações. Mas nada disso os dispensa
da grande solidão da morte
de termos de morrer cada um por nossa conta
Todos tivemos pai e mãe
nenhum de nós que eu saiba veio de salém

(Ruy Belo)