MENSAGEM DE ANO NOVO DO C.A.L.A.
(Comité de Apoio a Laurinda Alves)



(2008)

MÚSICA 2008 - PORTUGAL



Camané – Sempre de Mim
Tiago Guillul – IV
Cramol – Vozes de Nós
João Coração - Nº 1 Sessão de Cezimbra
Os Pontos Negros - Magnífico Material Inútil

(2008)

STREET ART, GRAFFITI & ETC (XXV)

Lisboa e Portimão, Portugal, 2007/2008

OITAVO COMUNICADO DO C.A.L.A.
(Comité de Apoio a Laurinda Alves)



"Como disse Scott Peck 'a vida é difícil' e ponto final parágrafo"

Continuando a divulgar o pensamento filosófico da candidata Laurinda Alves, é interessante conhecer alguns dos seus "maîtres à penser". Por exemplo, o psiquiatra Scott Peck, que ela cita correctamente ("Peck’s book begins with the profound truth that 'Life is difficult!'. We must attest to the fact that life was never meant to be easy, and that it is nothing but a battlefield of problems") e cujo ponto de vista acerca da origem e da natureza do Mal é imensamente iluminadora e educativa: "He says that evil arises out of free choice. He describes it thus: Every person stands at a crossroads, with one path leading to God, and the other path leading to the devil. The path of God is the right path, and accepting this path is akin to submission to a higher power. However, if a person wants to convince himself and others that he has free choice, he would rather take a path which cannot be attributed to its being the right path. Thus, he chooses the path of evil". (citações retiradas daqui)

(2008)

... JÁ AGORA, TAMBÉM:


Out Of The Past (real. Jacques Tourneur, 1947)

(2008)

NOIR BABES (I)

Liz Scott

Ida Lupino

Ann Savage

Rita Hayworth

Lauren Bacall

Joan Bennett

Jane Greer

Ava Gardner

(2008)

COM REGRAS DE JOGO IDÊNTICAS,
OS MELHORES FILMES VISTOS EM 2008:


The Big Combo (real. Joseph H. Lewis, 1955)



Kiss Me Deadly (real. Robert Aldrich, 1955)

(2008)

... na “shortlist” final, facilmente, noutro dia e a outra hora, poderiam ter entrado os pelo menos trinta que ficaram de fora e saído boa parte dos incluídos...

(sem nenhuma ordenação particular)

Silje Nes - Ames Room
Cat Power – Jukebox
Dawn Landes – Fireproof
Eric Matthews - The Imagination Stage
Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood (BSO)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
Devotchka - A Mad And Faithful Telling
Evangelista - Hello, Voyager
Chicha Libre - Sonido Amazónico
Foals - Antidotes
Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws - Weather’s Coming
Portishead – Third
Joan As Police Woman - To Survive
Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Stereolab - Chemical Chords
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
David Byrne - Big Love: Hymnal
Randy Newman - Harps & Angels
Patti Smith & Kevin Shields - The Coral Sea
David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Jolie Holland - The Living And The Dead
She & Him - Volume One
Lonely Drifter Karen - Grass Is Singing
Joan Baez - Day After Tomorrow
High Places - 03/07-09/07
The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
Hector Zazou & Katie Jane Garside - Corps Electriques

Hector Zazou & Swara - In The House Of Mirrors

The Welcome Wagon - Welcome To The Welcome Wagon
Sufjan Stevens - Astral Inter Planet Space Captain Christmas
Erik Halldén - Memories, Oh, The Memories

(2008)

MÚSICA 2008 - INTERNACIONAL

My Brightest Diamond - "From The Top Of The World"
(real. Ryan Foregger)

My Brightest Diamond - A Thousand Shark’s Teeth

Ego Plum & The Ebola Music Orchestra - The Rat King

High Places - High Places

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - Lie Down In The Light

The Burning Hell - Happy Birthday

Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: Bootleg Series Vol 8

American Music Club - The Golden Age

Marianne Faithfull - Easy Come, Easy Go

Micah P. Hinson - Micah P. Hinson & The Red Empire Orchestra

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Terá sido, provavelmente, um dos anos em que mais difícil foi eleger um indiscutível “top 10”e, nele, “o melhor”. Não porque escasseassem os muito bons e excelentes mas porque, de entre uma qualidade média francamente elevada, não surgiu nenhum que, de modo claro e evidente, marcasse distâncias, fizesse adivinhar rumos futuros ou, por contraste e nítida ruptura, se destacasse. Na “shortlist” final, facilmente, noutro dia e a outra hora, poderiam ter entrado os pelo menos trinta que ficaram de fora e saído boa parte dos incluídos. Mas, “numerus clausus oblige”, doeu especialmente afastar discos como Hello Voyager, dos Evangelista, o terceiro dos Portishead, Harps & Angels, de Randy Newman, The Devil, You + Me, dos Notwist, In The House Of Mirrors, de Hector Zazou & Swara, The Evangelist, de Robert Forster, @#%&*! Smilers, de Aimee Mann ou Weather’s Coming, de Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws. Mas também nunca ninguém nos disse que o mundo era um lugar bom e justo.

(2008)

NOTÍCIAS DE INSPIRAÇÃO CRISTÃ (VI)



"Ninguém em Portugal - nem o SIS - sabia de nada. Mas pouco depois de Herman Simm, chefe de segurança do Ministério da Defesa da Estónia, ter sido preso por 'alta traição' em Setembro último, começou a perceber-se que era um português, de nome Jesus, quem passava informação da NATO para a FSB (sucessora do KGB) em Moscovo. O advogado de Simm declarou esta semana ao 'Herald Tribune' não ter dúvidas que Jesus é português, embora haja também quem sustente que ele tem apenas um passaporte (falso ou não) português. Seja como for, através de Simm, segredos como mísseis de defesa e armas estratégicas de nova geração foram vendidas a Putin por Jesus. Com o estónio preso, as secretas europeias querem agora saber quem é Jesus e apanhá-lo". ("Expresso")

(2008)

CINEMA 2008



Haverá Sangue - Paul Thomas Anderson

O Segredo de Um Cuscuz - Abdellatif Kechiche

Corações - Alain Resnais

Persépolis - Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud

Este País Não É Para Velhos - Joel & Ethan Coen

I'm Not There - Todd Haynes

Antes Que O Diabo Saiba Que Morreste - Sidney Lumet

The Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson

Mamma Mia! - Phyllida Lloyd

Destruir Depois De Ler - Joel & Ethan Coen

A Turma - Laurent Cantet

O Assassínio De Jesse James Pelo Cobarde Robert Ford - Andrew Dominik

Bem-Vindo Ao Norte - Dany Boon

Indiana Jones E A Caveira De Cristal - Steven Spielberg

(2008)

ALL CITIES ARE GEOLOGICAL
(Suburbia I)

"We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun. Between the legs of the women walking by, the dadaists imagined a monkey wrench and the surrealists a crystal cup. That’s lost. We know how to read every promise in faces — the latest stage of morphology. The poetry of the billboards lasted twenty years".

"All cities are geological. You can’t take three steps without encountering ghosts bearing all the prestige of their legends. We move within a closed landscape whose landmarks constantly draw us toward the past. Certain shifting angles, certain receding perspectives, allow us to glimpse original conceptions of space, but this vision remains fragmentary".

"We don’t intend to prolong the mechanistic civilizations and frigid architecture that ultimately lead to boring leisure. We propose to invent new, changeable decors". (Ivan Chtcheglov, Formulary for a New Urbanism)

(2008)

FUTURO AQUI?



Enquanto o mundo, primeiro, invisivelmente, depois, de forma estrondosa, assegurava que, de uma vez por todas, atribuíssemos o verdadeiro sentido a “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It” (sem que, no entanto, fossemos capazes de, imperturbavelmente, lhe pronunciar o anexo “and I feel fine”...), uma canção dos R.E.M. com 21 anos, no admirável universo da música era apenas “business as usual”. Um “business” que, sem dúvida, “as we knew it”, caminha, inexoravelmente, para o seu declínio – a queda nas vendas de fonogramas físicos aprofunda-se, muito insuficientemente compensada pelas vendas legais “online” e em gigantesca devantagem face aos “downloads” ilegais – mas que nem assim se sentiu verdadeiramente estimulado para, perante a hecatombe, mudar radicalmente de processos. Enquanto indústria e enquanto manifestação estética, em 2008, a música pareceu continuar a viver estranhamente isolada no interior de uma bolha impermeável aos abalos externos, reciclando-se infinitamente, rapando o último fundo aos catálogos, persistindo em métodos de uma idade bem anterior à emergência da Internet, continuando a publicar-se belíssima música (e, naturalmente, também excremento sonoro em abundância) mas nada a partir de onde se pudesse enxergar sinais de futuro. Negro ou luminoso, mas, pelo menos, futuro.



Curiosamente, num cenário onde, entre legiões de melancólicos aspirantes a descendentes de um “one night stand” de Woody Guthrie com June Carter numa cabana das Apalaches e sucessivos e vertiginosos revivalismos, o único fenómeno genuinamente inesperado – a relativamente nova “cena de Brooklyn”, dos Vampire Weekend aos High Places, parece ter potencial renovador mas Nova Iorque sempre foi terreno reconhecidamente fértil –, deste ponto de vista onde nos situamos, foi o que eclodiu nos subúrbios de um diminuto lugar periférico, à beira de mais outra fatal depressão. A saber, Portugal, de Queluz a S. Domingos de Benfica, das caves de Igrejas Baptistas para um circuito alternativo ao alternativo, compondo, em português, “panque-roque” e tosco “folque” artesanal, com epicentro em editoras como a FlorCaveira e AmorFúria e protagonistas de nome Tiago Guillul, Pontos Negros, Samuel Úria, João Coração ou B Fachada. Pop “povera” e a que repugnam os “valores de produção”, vivendo de um excesso de convicção e, por aí mesmo, sinal dos tempos e matéria de proclamações, provocações e manifestos. Por uma vez, se surpresas houve, nasceram aqui e não sabemos como evoluirão. E isso é muito bom. Porque o destino de quase todo o resto não poderia ser mais previsível.

(2008)

WHY MUSIC? *
(The Economist, 18 de Dezembro de 2008)


Robert Fludd - The Temple of Music, (1617-18)

Biologists are addressing one of humanity's strangest attributes, its all-singing, all-dancing culture

"If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it". And if not? Well, what exactly is it for? The production and consumption of music is a big part of the economy. The first use to which commercial recording, in the form of Edison's phonographs, was to bring music to the living rooms and picnic tables of those who could not afford to pay live musicians. Today, people are so surrounded by other people's music that they take it for granted, but as little as 100 years ago singsongs at home, the choir in the church and fiddlers in the pub were all that most people heard.

Other appetites, too, have been sated even to excess by modern business. Food far beyond the simple needs of stomachs, and sex (or at least images of it) far beyond the needs of reproduction, bombard the modern man and woman, and are eagerly consumed. But these excesses are built on obvious appetites. What appetite drives the proliferation of music to the point where the average American teenager spends 1.5-2.5 hours a day - an eighth of his waking life - listening to it? Well, that fact - that he, or she, is a teenager - supports one hypothesis about the function of music. Around 40% of the lyrics of popular songs speak of romance, sexual relationships and sexual behaviour. The Shakespearean theory, that music is at least one of the foods of love, has a strong claim to be true. The more mellifluous the singer, the more dexterous the harpist, the more mates he attracts. A second idea that is widely touted is that music binds groups of people together. The resulting solidarity, its supporters suggest, might have helped bands of early humans to thrive at the expense of those that were less musical.

Both of these ideas argue that musical ability evolved specifically - that it is, if you like, a virtual organ as precisely crafted to its purpose as the heart or the spleen. The third hypothesis, however, is that music is a cross between an accident and an invention. It is an accident because it is the consequence of abilities that evolved for other purposes. And it is an invention because, having thus come into existence, people have bent it to their will and made something they like from it.

Shakespeare's famous quote was, of course, based on commonplace observation. Singing, done well, is certainly sexy. But is its sexiness the reason it exists? Charles Darwin thought so. Twelve years after he published On the Origin of Species, which described the idea of natural selection, a second book hit the presses. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex suggested that the need to find a mate being the pressing requirement that it is, a lot of the features of any given animal have come about not to aid its survival, but to aid its courtship. The most famous example is the tail of the peacock. But Darwin suggested human features, too, might be sexually selected in this way - and one of those he lit on was music.


Sam & Dave - "Hold On I'm Comin'"

In this case, unlike that of natural selection, Darwin's thinking did not set the world alight. But his ideas were revived recently by Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary biologist who works at the University of New Mexico. Dr Miller starts with the observations that music is a human universal, that it is costly in terms of time and energy to produce, and that it is, at least in some sense, under genetic control. About 4% of the population has "amusia" of one sort or another, and at least some types of amusia are known to be heritable. Universality, costliness and genetic control all suggest that music has a clear function in survival or reproduction, and Dr Miller plumps for reproduction.

One reason for believing this is that musical productivity - at least among the recording artists who have exploited the phonograph and its successors over the past hundred years or so - seems to match the course of an individual's reproductive life. In particular, Dr Miller studied jazz musicians. He found that their output rises rapidly after puberty, reaches its peak during young-adulthood, and then declines with age and the demands of parenthood.


Miles Davis/John Coltrane - "So What"

As is often the case with this sort of observation, it sounds unremarkable; obvious, even. But uniquely human activities associated with survival - cooking, say - do not show this pattern. People continue to cook at about the same rate from the moment that they have mastered the art until the moment they die or are too decrepit to continue. Moreover, the anecdotal evidence linking music to sexual success is strong. Dr Miller often cites the example of Jimi Hendrix, who had sex with hundreds of groupies during his brief life and, though he was legally unmarried, maintained two long-term liaisons. The words of Robert Plant, the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, are also pertinent: "I was always on my way to love. Always. Whatever road I took, the car was heading for one of the greatest sexual encounters I've ever had".

Another reason to believe the food-of-love hypothesis is that music fulfils the main criterion of a sexually selected feature: it is an honest signal of underlying fitness. Just as unfit peacocks cannot grow splendid tails, so unfit people cannot sing well, dance well (for singing and dancing go together, as it were, like a horse and carriage) or play music well. All of these activities require physical fitness and dexterity. Composing music requires creativity and mental agility. Put all of these things together and you have a desirable mate.

A third reason to believe it is that music, or something very like it, has evolved in other species, and seems to be sexually selected in those species, too. Just as the parallel evolution of mouse-like forms in marsupial and placental mammals speaks of similar ways of life, so the parallel evolution of song in birds, whales and gibbons, as well as humans, speaks of a similar underlying function. And females of these animals can be fussy listeners. It is known from several species of birds, for example, that females prefer more complex songs from their suitors, putting males under pressure to evolve the neurological apparatus to create and sing them.


Jimi Hendrix - "Voodoo Chile"

And yet, and yet. Though Dr Miller's arguments are convincing, they do not feel like the whole story. A man does not have to be gay to enjoy the music of an all-male orchestra, even if he particularly appreciates the soprano who comes on to sing the solos. A woman, meanwhile, can enjoy the soprano even while appreciating the orchestra on more than one level. Something else besides sex seems to be going on.

The second hypothesis for music's emergence is that it had a role not just in helping humans assess their mates, but also in binding bands of people together in the evolutionary past. Certainly, it sometimes plays that role today. It may be unfashionable in Britain to stand for the national anthem, but two minutes watching the Last Night of the Proms, an annual music festival, on television will serve to dispel any doubts about the ability of certain sorts of music to instil collective purpose in a group of individuals. In this case the cost in time and energy is assumed to be repaid in some way by the advantages of being part of a successful group.

The problem with this hypothesis is that it relies on people not cheating and taking the benefits without paying the costs. One way out of that dilemma is to invoke a phenomenon known to biologists as group selection. Biologically, this is a radical idea. It requires the benefits of solidarity to be so great that groups lacking them are often extinguished en bloc. Though theoretically possible, this is likely to be rare in practice. However, some researchers have suggested that the invention of weapons such as spears and bows and arrows made intertribal warfare among early humans so lethal that group selection did take over. It has been invoked, for example, to explain the contradictory manifestations of morality displayed in battle: tenderness towards one's own side; ruthlessness towards the enemy. In this context the martial appeal of some sorts of music might make sense.

Robin Dunbar of Oxford University does not go quite that far, but unlike Dr Miller he thinks that the origins of music need to be sought in social benefits of group living rather than the sexual benefits of seduction. He does not deny that music has gone on to be sexually selected (indeed, one of his students, Konstantinos Kaskatis, has shown that Dr Miller's observation about jazz musicians also applies to 19th-century classical composers and contemporary pop singers). But he does not think it started that way.


Claude Debussy - "La Fille aux cheveux de lin"
(Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli)

Much of Dr Dunbar's career has been devoted to trying to explain the development of sociality in primates. He believes that one of the things that binds groups of monkeys and apes together is grooming. On the face of it, grooming another animal is functional. It keeps the pelt clean and removes parasites. But it is an investment in someone else's well-being, not your own. Moreover, animals often seem to groom each other for far longer than is strictly necessary to keep their fur pristine. That time could, in principle, be used for something else. Social grooming, rather like sexual selection, is therefore a costly (and thus honest) signal. In this case though, that signal is of commitment to the group rather than reproductive prowess.

Dr Dunbar thinks language evolved to fill the role of grooming as human tribes grew too large for everyone to be able to groom everyone else. This is a controversial hypothesis, but it is certainly plausible. The evidence suggests, however, that the need for such "remote grooming" would arise when a group exceeds about 80 individuals, whereas human language really got going when group sizes had risen to around 140. His latest idea is that the gap was bridged by music, which may thus be seen as a precursor to language.

The costliness of music - and of the dancing associated with it - is not in doubt, so the idea has some merit. Moreover, the idea that language evolved from wordless singing is an old one. And, crucially, both singing and dancing tend to be group activities. That does not preclude their being sexual. Indeed, showing off to the opposite sex in groups is a strategy used by many animals (it is known as lekking). But it may also have the function of using up real physiological resources in a demonstration of group solidarity.


Jordi Savall - "La Folia" (sec. XV)

By side-stepping the genocidal explanations that underlie the classical theory of group selection, Dr Dunbar thinks he has come up with an explanation that accounts for music's socially binding qualities without stretching the limits of evolutionary theory. Whether it will pass the mathematical scrutiny which showed that classical group selection needs genocide remains to be seen. But if music is functional, it may be that sexual selection and social selection have actually given each other a helping hand.

The third hypothesis, though, is that music is not functional, and also that Dr Dunbar has got things backwards. Music did not lead to language, language led to music in what has turned out to be a glorious accident - what Stephen Jay Gould called a spandrel, by analogy with the functionless spaces between the arches of cathedrals that artists then fill with paintings. This is what Steven Pinker, a language theorist at Harvard, thinks. He once described music as auditory cheesecake and suggested that if it vanished from the species little else would change.

Dr Pinker's point is that, like real cheesecake, music sates an appetite that nature cannot. Human appetites for food evolved at a time when the sugar and fat which are the main ingredients of cheesecake were scarce. In the past, no one would ever have found enough of either of these energy-rich foods to become obese, so a strong desire to eat them evolved, together with little limit beyond a full stomach to stop people eating too much. So it is with music. A brain devoted to turning sound into meaning is tickled by an oversupply of tone, melody and rhythm. Singing is auditory masturbation to satisfy this craving. Playing musical instruments is auditory pornography. Both sate an appetite that is there beyond its strict biological need.


Robert Wyatt - "Sea Song"

Of course, it is a little more complicated than that. People do not have to be taught to like cheesecake or sexy pictures (which, in a telling use of the language, are sometimes also referred to as "cheesecake"). They do, however, have to be taught music in a way that they do not have to be taught language.

Aniruddh Patel, of the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, compares music to writing, another widespread cultural phenomenon connected with language. True language - the spoken languages used by most people and the gestural languages used by the deaf - does not have to be taught in special classes. The whole of a baby's world is its classroom. It is true that parents make a special effort to talk to their children, but this is as instinctive as a young child's ability (lost in his early teens) to absorb the stuff and work out its rules without ever being told them explicitly.

Learning to write, by contrast, is a long-winded struggle that many fail to master even if given the opportunity. Dyslexia, in other words, is common. Moreover, reading and writing must actively be taught, usually by specialists, and evidence for a youthful critical period when this is easier than otherwise is lacking. Both, however, transform an individual's perception of the world, and for this reason Dr Patel refers to them as "transformative technologies".

In difficulty of learning, music lies somewhere in between speaking and writing. Most people have some musical ability, but it varies far more than their ability to speak. Dr Patel sees this as evidence to support his idea that music is not an adaptation in the way that language is, but is, instead, a transformative technology. However, that observation also supports the idea that sexual selection is involved, since the whole point is that not everyone will be equally able to perform, or even to learn how to do so.


Stan Getz & Chet Baker - "My Funny Valentine"

What all of these hypotheses have in common is the ability of music to manipulate the emotions, and this is the most mysterious part of all. That some sounds lead to sadness and others to joy is the nub of all three hypotheses. The singing lover is not merely demonstrating his prowess; he also seeks to change his beloved's emotions. Partly, that is done by the song's words, but pure melody can also tug at the heart-strings. The chords of martial music stir different sentiments. A recital of the Monteverdi Vespers or a Vivaldi concerto in St Mark's cathedral in Venice, the building that inspired Gould to think of the non-role of spandrels, generates emotion pure and simple, disconnected from human striving.

This is an area that is only beginning to be investigated. Among the pioneers are Patrik Juslin, of Uppsala University, and Daniel Vastfjall, of Gothenburg University, both in Sweden. They believe they have identified six ways that music affects emotion, from triggering reflexes in the brain stem to triggering visual images in the cerebral cortex.

Such a multiplicity of effects suggests music may be an emergent property of the brain, cobbled together from bits of pre-existing machinery and then, as it were, fine-tuned. So, ironically, everyone may be right - or, at least partly right. Dr Pinker may be right that music was originally an accident and Dr Patel may be right that it transforms people's perceptions of the world without necessarily being a proper biological phenomenon. But Dr Miller and Dr Dunbar may be right that even if it originally was an accident, it has subsequently been exploited by evolution and made functional.

Part of that accident may be the fact that many natural sounds evoke emotion for perfectly good reasons (fear at the howl of a wolf, pleasure at the sound of gently running water, irritation and mother-love at the crying of a child). Sexually selected features commonly rely on such pre-existing perceptual biases. It is probably no coincidence, for instance, that peacocks' tails have eyespots; animal brains are good at recognising eyes because eyes are found only on other animals. It is pure speculation, but music may be built on emotions originally evolved to respond to important natural sounds, but which have blossomed a hundred-fold.

The truth, of course, is that nobody yet knows why people respond to music. But, when the carol singers come calling, whether the emotion they induce is joy or pain, you may rest assured that science is trying to work out why.

* 1) para ler em conjunto com Musicophilia, Tales Of Music And The Brain, de Oliver Sacks, The Singing Neanderthals, de Steven Mithen e This Is Your Brain On Music, de Daniel J. Levitin; 2) post-pretexto para incluir clips de uma série de músicas que dá sempre jeito ter à mão; 3) gratidão eterna ao fornecedor do texto.

(2008)

PROPOSTA DESINTERESSADA PARA A RESOLUÇÃO DO PROBLEMA DO ABSENTISMO ESCOLAR

(2008)

CITY GHOSTS (XVII)

Lisboa, Portugal, 2008















(2008)

COMO CONVIDADOS

 

      

Vários - From The Basement (DVD) 

 

Classificado pelo seu criador, Nigel Godrich, como “a sort of music TV show/labour of love”, From The Basement procura oferecer às bandas e músicos que nele participam as condições ideais de actuação no contexto de um programa sem apresentador nem público, suplícios habituais nos diversos formatos para televisão. Inicialmente concebido para uma exclusiva existência “online”, a pressão orçamental obrigou a que se tornasse necessário o apoio dos canais Sky Arts (no Reino Unido) e Rave (nos EUA). 

 

  Sonic Youth - "The Sprawl" (From The Basement) 

 

Na verdade, isso nada terá beliscado a atmosfera única em que, agora publicado em DVD, vamos descobrir PJ Harvey, Neil Hannon, Jarvis Cocker, Beck, Radiohead, The White Stripes, The Shins, Laura Marling, Albert Hammond Jr., Autolux, os Eels, Sonic Youth, Damien Rice ou Super Furry Animals, inteiramente concentrados na sua música, por entre amplificadores, cabos, instrumentos e mesas de mistura, em estúdio ou no palco, sem nada que interfira com aquilo que mais gostam de fazer. Só aparentemente austero e espartano, o clima é, sem dúvida, o mais desejável para que nos possamos sentir algures por ali, como convidados semi-clandestinos do momento. (2008)

FELIZ ANIVERSÁRIO DE ISAAC NEWTON!

The Ten Days of Newton

Olivia Judson

Some years ago, the evolutionist and atheist Richard Dawkins pointed out to me that Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of modern physics and mathematics, and arguably the greatest scientist of all time, was born on Christmas Day, and that therefore Newton’s Birthday could be an alternative, if somewhat nerdy, excuse for a winter holiday. Think of the merchandise! Newton is said to have discovered the phenomenon of gravity by watching apples fall in an orchard. (His insight came after pondering why they always fall down, rather than upwards or sideways.) Newton’s Birthday cards could feature the great man discovering gravity by watching a Christmas decoration fall from a tree. (This is a little anachronistic — Christmas trees didn’t come to England until later — but I don’t think we should let that get in the way.)

All very jolly — but then, ’tis the season. Yet things are not so simple. It turns out that the date of Newton’s birthday is a little contentious. Newton was born in England on Christmas Day 1642 according to the Julian calendar — the calendar in use in England at the time. But by the 1640s, much of the rest of Europe was using the Gregorian calendar (the one in general use today); according to this calendar, Newton was born on Jan. 4, 1643.

Rather than bickering about whether Dec. 25 or Jan. 4 is the better date to observe Newton’s Birthday, I think we should embrace the discrepancy and have an extended festival. After all, the festival of Christmas properly continues for a further 12 days, until the feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6. So the festival of Newton could begin on Christmas Day and then continue for an extra 10 days, representing the interval between the calendars. (...)

In honor of Newton’s Birthday festival, I therefore propose the following song, to be sung to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” For brevity, I include only the final verse. All together now!

On the tenth day of Newton,
My true love gave to me,
Ten drops of genius,
Nine silver co-oins,
Eight circling planets,
Seven shades of li-ight,
Six counterfeiters,
Cal-Cu-Lus!
Four telescopes,
Three Laws of Motion,
Two awful feuds,
And the discovery of gravity!

Happy Newton, everybody!

(texto integral aqui)

(2008)

SÉTIMO COMUNICADO DO C.A.L.A.
(Comité de Apoio a Laurinda Alves)

Neste dia de Natal de Paz, de Sonhos e de Harmonia, que tão caro é aos nossos corações, é com desmedida felicidade que temos a honra de comunicar a escolha do nosso hino para a campanha da candidata Laurinda Alves ao Parlamento Europeu: "I Have A Dream (I Believe In Angels)", dos ABBA! "Em tudo ver o bem" será, sem dúvida, o lema que conduzirá Laurinda à vitória e, nas asas de anjos, o mundo à felicidade e à justiça!

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream



I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

(2008)

CHRISTMAS CAROLS...







...& POSTCARDS!



(daqui)



(daqui)



(daqui)



(daqui)

(2008)

SEXTO COMUNICADO DO C.A.L.A.
(Comité de Apoio a Laurinda Alves)

MENSAGEM DE NATAL DE LAURINDA ALVES

"Nestes dias de sol o entardecer é um momento sagrado em que o horizonte se incendeia e tudo parece arder entre o céu e a terra. Fico calada, voltada para este poente, e só consigo falar quando já não há luz ao fundo. Gosto do silêncio destes momentos e faço deles a minha oração de gratidão por tudo e tanto que me é dado viver". (post integral aqui)




(2008)

NOTÍCIAS DE INSPIRAÇÃO CRISTÃ (V)

"The Crucifixion of Christ" - Becki Jayne Harrelson

"O Papa Bento XVI indicou hoje que salvar a humanidade de comportamentos homossexuais ou transexuais é tão importante como salvar as florestas tropicais da destruição. 'A Igreja deverá proteger o homem de se destruir a ele mesmo. É preciso uma espécie de ecologia do Homem' disse o Sumo Pontífice num discurso perante a Cúria Romana, a administração central do Vaticano. (...) O Vaticano opõe-se aos casamentos gay e, em Outubro, um alto responsável da Igreja indicou que a homossexualidade é 'um desvio, uma irregularidade, uma ferida'. O Papa disse ainda que a humanidade precisa de 'escutar a linguagem da Criação' para entender os papéis do homem e da mulher e comparou as relações diferentes das heterossexuais como 'a destruição do trabalho de Deus'. ("Público")

"Christ the Bridegroom" - Robert Lentz

confrontar com O Evangelho Secreto de Marcos:

"And they came into Bethany and a certain woman whose brother had died was there. And, coming, she knelt down before Jesus and said to him, 'Son of David, have mercy on me'. But the disciples rebuked her. And Jesus got angry with them and went off with her into the garden where the tomb was. Right away there was a loud cry from inside the tomb. Then Jesus rolled away the stone from in front of the tomb. He went in where the youth was and stretched forth his hand and raised him up. The youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beg him to be with him.

They they left the tomb and went to the young man's house, for he was rich. Six days later, Jesus gave him instructions of what to do and in the evening the youth came to him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth over his naked body. He remained with him that night, for Jesus thaught him the mystery of the Kingdom of God. And when Jesus woke up, he returned to the other side of the Jordan".

...e Gay Jesus 1, 2 e 3. E, já agora, ver aqui também.

Outra iconografia cristã:

"Sermon on the Mount" - Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin

"Our Lady" - Alma Lopez

"Missa Solemnis" - Jill Ansell

Passion Of A Goddess 1

Passion Of A Goddess 2

Passion Of A Goddess 3

Passion Of A Goddess 4

Passion Of A Goddess 5

"Crucifixion" - Sandra Yagi

(2008)

NOTÍCIAS DE INSPIRAÇÃO CRISTÃ (IV)
(& outras)


Paulo Borges

No Encontro Nacional da Pastoral da Saúde, aberto a representantes de diversas confissões religiosas, o Presidente da União Budista Portuguesa, Paulo Borges, interveio, começando por esclarecer uma questão essencial e muito insuficientemente debatida: "Independentemente da sua religião, os pacientes são seres que sofrem". De seguida, e sob uma perspectiva mais pragmática e utilitária, acrescentou: "O doente pode ser um dom para nós. Não porque nós o desejemos, porque isso era ser egoísta, mas um doente é uma oportunidade para caminharmos na nossa santidade". Verdadeiramente iluminador de uma fecunda interacção entre espiritualidade e ciência foi, porém, o momento em que afirmou "Na tradição budista, a morte clínica não torna o corpo cadáver. Só três dias depois. Muitas vezes, durante cerca de três dias a uma semana, o corpo permanece mole o que quer dizer que o espírito do defunto ainda está presente". Um ponto a que a indústria funerária deverá passar a prestar a indispensável atenção.

(segundo notícia de "Voz da Verdade" de 14.12.08)

(2008)

POESIA DE INSPIRAÇÃO CRISTÃ (IV)



Num meio-dia de fim de primavera
Tive um sonho como uma fotografia.
Vi Jesus Cristo descer à terra.

(...)

Tinha fugido do céu.
Era nosso demais para fingir
De segunda pessoa da Trindade.
No céu era tudo falso, tudo em desacordo
Com flores e árvores e pedras.
No céu tinha que estar sempre sério
E de vez em quando de se tornar outra vez homem
E subir para a cruz, e estar sempre a morrer
Com uma coroa toda à roda de espinhos
E os pés espetados por um prego com cabeça,
E até com um trapo à roda da cintura
Como os pretos nas ilustrações.
Nem sequer o deixavam ter pai e mãe
Como as outras crianças.
O seu pai era duas pessoas
Um velho chamado José, que era carpinteiro,
E que não era pai dele;
E o outro pai era uma pomba estúpida,
A única pomba feia do mundo
Porque não era do mundo nem era pomba.
E a sua mãe não tinha amado antes de o ter.

Não era mulher: era uma mala
Em que ele tinha vindo do céu.
E queriam que ele, que só nascera da mãe,
E nunca tivera pai para amar com respeito,
Pregasse a bondade e a justiça!

(...)

Diz-me muito mal de Deus.
Diz que ele é um velho estúpido e doente,
Sempre a escarrar no chão
E a dizer indecências.
A Virgem Maria leva as tardes da eternidade a fazer meia.
E o Espírito Santo coça-se com o bico
E empoleira-se nas cadeiras e suja-as.
Tudo no céu é estúpido como a Igreja Católica.
Diz-me que Deus não percebe nada
Das coisas que criou
Se é que ele as criou, do que duvido
Ele diz, por exemplo, que os seres cantam a sua glória,
Mas os seres não cantam nada.
Se cantassem seriam cantores.
Os seres existem e mais nada,
E por isso se chamam seres.

(...)

(Poemas de Alberto Caeiro)

(2008)

ABALOS DE FÉ



Porta principal do Centro Comercial Amoreiras. Separados por escassas dezenas de metros, dois outdoors com relógio e indicador de temperatura. Num é 3 minutos mais tarde do que no outro. A diferença da temperatura anunciada por ambos é de 4º. O que não só desconcentra bastante como abala severamente as convicções de quem deseja acreditar numa realidade solid as a rock. Depois, admirem-se se os relativismos se multiplicarem.

(2008)

FRASES & IMAGENS 
NASCIDAS PARA VIVER JUNTAS

"O que é o crime de assaltar um banco comparado com o crime de fundar um banco?" (Bertolt Brecht)

(2008)