Reflecting the times

"On November 22nd System of a Down will release Hypnotize, the companion album to Mezmerize, which stormed to the top of the chart in May. "We don't look at them as two records, we look at them as one record," says guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian. "It feels like people haven't heard the whole album yet."
[...]
System of a Down -- who just finished their late fall tour with openers the Mars Volta -- are set to perform next at the MTV Europe Awards on November 3rd in Lisbon, Portugal. The video for the title track and first single off Hypnotize will air on both the band's Web site and MTV beginning November 1st".

Brian Hiatt in Rolling Stone.

Shirley Horn

Shirley Horn, 71, Dies
Daily News Headlines

22/10/2005

Shirley Horn, whose her whisper-soft delivery, clear phrasing and spare, in the-pocket piano playing, made here one of the most enjoyable and distinctive artists in jazz, died Thursday night in her hometown of Washington, D.C., after a long battle with diabetes. She was 71. Horn's career read like a Hollywood movie: A young musical genius is discovered by a jazz legend, but postpones major stardom to raise a family, only to emerge in her mature years as a superstar on he own terms.

in http://www.downbeatjazz.com

instruções úteis

'clic no botão direito do rato para conhecer modos de interagir com esta pessoa'... explica o MSN, como se fosse assim fácil!! não é uma instrução, não é uma ilustração, não é uma explicação; é uma ilusão! é reduzir o instinto para criar e desenvolver competencias de interacção a nada, coisa nenhuma.

é uma amputação.

é por isso que há falhanços... claro!

há quem cante

"Onze anos atrás, Outubro: uma editora pequena de nome Drag City lança um disco chamado "Starlite Walker". Lá dentro, numa só canção ("Trains across the sea"), todo um programa: bateria fora de tempo, guitarras ébrias e uma voz entediada que cantava
"Sin and gravity
Drag me down to sleep
To dream of trains across the sea
Trains across the sea",
forma de dizer que há drogas e álcool para lidar com o que é doloroso, e que é preferível ver comboios atravessarem o mar do que enfrentar o real".

in Y, 21 Outubro 2005.

há quem diga

"A primeira função de um Presidente consiste em estar lá.

Para o que der e vier. Nem sempre dá, nem sempre vem. Mas nunca se sabe. Aliás, basta pensar nos problemas que resultariam do facto de não haver Presidente (ou equiparado).
Não estar lá alguém é pior do que haver quem apenas ocupa a cadeira.
Depois, vêm as funções do lugar-comum. Garantir. Representar. Assegurar. Promulgar. Dar posse.
Todas funções indispensáveis, mas cuja utilidade, em regime semi-presidencialista, é discutível.

Finalmente, vêm as funções especiais, as políticas. Essas são as importantes. E ficam na história. É, todavia, verdade que pode haver Presidentes que, por falta de saber, jeito ou oportunidade, as não desempenhem. Mas o problema é deles. Reconheço ainda que, em muitos casos, não desempenhar funções políticas especiais, nem ter ideias, pode ser sinal de sabedoria e mérito: é melhor isso do que ter invenções.
[...]

A discussão sobre os poderes do Presidente continua. Conformada, quase toda a gente aceita que aquele nada pode fazer.

É mentira.

Se for livre e quiser, o Presidente tem meios ao seu alcance.
Pode não promulgar leis.
Pode não aceitar nomeações.
Pode advertir os governos e o Parlamento.
Pode dissolver a Assembleia.
Pode impor condições para a formação de governos.
Pode impor processos de feitura de leis mais competentes.
Pode exigir leis mais bem elaboradas e justificadas.
Pode mandar estudar problemas e retirar conclusões.
Pode publicar livros brancos com recomendações políticas.
Pode enviar repetidas e contundentes mensagens ao Parlamento. Pode designar as instituições que não cumprem os seus deveres.
Pode impedir negócios estranhos.
Pode fazer isso e muito mais.
E será tanto mais eficaz quanto o fizer com o povo como testemunha.
Isto é, se agir diante dos cidadãos, às abertas. Se não for um covarde que, com receio de ser contrariado pelo governo ou pelo Parlamento, prefira o silêncio ou a reserva.

Se trocar as conversas semanais, discretas e alcatifadas, do Palácio de Belém, com o primeiro-ministro, pelo espaço público. Se for claro, concreto e preciso. Se a população perceber o que denuncia e o que propõe.

Se assim for, talvez não se trate de mais uma eleição perdida.

A. B. in Público, 23 de Outubro 2005.

vai daí

Não é gago


"Não é a primeira vez que, a coberto do anonimato e da cobardia mais abjecta que isso representa, encontrei textos na Net dedicados à difamação e calúnia de outrem - eu próprio incluído. Mas não esperava que houvesse gente capaz de usar o nome de outros para embrulhar a porcaria mental em que vive. Jornalista".

M.S.T. in Público, 21 de Outubro 2005.

not fiction

mas quase o parece.

o que chamar à feliz coincidência (será mesmo isso: uma feliz coincidência?) de alguém oferecer flores para dizer: thanks for the time party you gave us on the other day? quando afinal 'Mas..., mas, eu estou de luto, faço anos hoje, e tu, como outros milhares, não sabes disso: a que propósito o ramo?... ah! thanks. agora me lembro: Deus fecha uma porta, mas abre logo outra; esta é uma porta que se abre: thanks again. see you". E as lágrimas limparam-se.

fiction

35

"At the Methuen Mental hospital the female psychiatrist assigned to assessing Wilt's psychological state was having as much difficulty. Wilt had passed all the standard visual and symbolic testes with such surprising ease that the spychiatrist could have sworn he'd spent considerable time practising doing them. His verbal skills were even more disconcerting.

Only his attitude to sex were even more suspicious. It appeared that he found copulation boring and exhausting, not to say ludicrous and fairly repulsive. His admiration for the procreative habits of earthworms and amoebas who simply reproduced by dividing themselves, voluntarily in the case of amoebas and, as far as Wilt knew, involuntarily by earthworms when they were cut in half by a spade, seemed to indicate a severely depressed libido. Since the lady shrink was completely ignorant on the subject of amoebas and earthworms but keen on what little sex her looks attracted, this information came as a nasty revelation to her.

'Are you saying you would rather bisect yourself than sleep with your wife?' she asked, hoping to draw the inference that Wilt had a tendency towards a split personality.
'Of course not', Wilt replied indignantly. 'Mind you, [...]".


in Wilt in Nowhere, Tom Sharp.

fiction

"They called her the Queen of Dead.

Though no one ever said it to her face, Dr. Maura Isles sometimes heard the nickname murmured in her wake as she traveled the grim triangle of her job between courtroom and death scene and morgue. Sometimes she would detect a note of dark sarcasm: Ha ha, there she goes, our Goth goddess, out to collect fresh subjects.

Sometimes the whispers held a tremolo of disquiet, like the murmurs of the pious as an unholy stranger passes among them. It was the disquiet of those who could not understand why she chose to walk in Death's footsteps. Does she enjoy it, they wonder? Does the touch of cold flesh, the stench of decay, hold such allure for her that she has turned her back on the living? They think this cannot be normal, and they cast uneasy glances her way, noting details that only reinforce their beliefs that she is an odd duck. The ivory skin, the black hair with its blunt Cleopatra cut. The red slash of lipstick. Who else wears lipstick to a death scene? Most of all, it's her calmness that disturbs them, her coolly regal gaze as she surveys the horrors that they themselves can barely stomach.

Unlike them, she does not avert her gaze. Instead she bends close and stares, touches. She sniffs.
And latter, under bright lights in her autopsy lab, she cuts.

She was cutting now, her scalpel slicing through chilled skin, through subcutaneos fat that gleamed a greasy yellow. A man who liked his hamburgers and fries, she thought as she used pruning shears to cut through ribs and lifted the triangular shield of breastbone the way one opens a cupboard door, to reveals its treasured contents.

The heart lays cradled in its sponge bed of lungs. For fifty-nine years, it had pumped blood through the body of Mr. Samuel Knight. It had grown with him, aged with him, transforming, as he had, from the lean muscle of youth to this well-larded flesh. All pumps eventually fail, and so had Mr. Knight's as he'd sat in his Boston hotel room with the TV turned on and a glass of whiskey from the minibar sitting beside him on the nightstand.


She did not pause to wonder what his final thoughts might have been, or whether he had felt pain or fear. Though she explored his most intimate recesses, though she flayed open his skin and held his heart in her hands, Mr. Samuel Knight remained a stranger to her, a silent and undemanding one, wilingly offering up his secrets. The dead are patient. They do not complain, nor threaten, nor cajole.
The dead do not hurt you; only the living do."


in The Sinner, Tess Gerritsen

film fiction

"The Constant Gardener (dir: Fernando Meirelles)

Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz star in this adaptation of a John Le Carré novel, which has won golden opinions since its premiere at the Venice film festival.

Le Carré's elegant storytelling-style is cranked up to a much more frenetic pitch by Meirelles, the director of City of God. This is an indictment of the criminal hypocrisy and cynicism of the west in its dealings with Africa.

Weisz is the vital, dynamic young woman married to Fiennes, the shy but intense diplomat. When she sees how a young Kenyan woman suffers as a result of being treated with a dangerous new drug, she is determined to investigate. Smaller roles here for Bill Nighy and Danny Huston.

Bound to be a hot ticket for people looking for a new English Patient".


... would be of worth, but this last comment.

findings

Jamie Wilson
in Washington
Friday October 14, 2005
The Guardian

Beethoven's Grosse Fuge score ... 'an amazing find'.

«A handwritten score of one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most revolutionary works has been discovered by a librarian cleaning out a cabinet in a seminary in Pennsylvania after being missing for more than a century.

The 80-page manuscript for a piano version of Grosse Fuge, thought to have been written by Beethoven himself, dates from the final months of his life when he was completely deaf. The work was described by scholars of the German composer yesterday as an "amazing find" and "extremely important"».

Clash Submissions

DIESEL:U:MUSIC COMPETITION 2005

HOW TO ENTER:

Submit a three track (no longer than 6 minutes in duration per track) demo of original material on minidisc, DAT or CD and send in to:
Diesel-U-Music
55 Argyle Street
London WC1H 8EE

DJs should submit a 45 minute mix. VJs should submit a 5 minute mix on VHS, DVD or mini DV. Closing date for entries is 30/05/05
Please read all rules and regulations detailed on the entry form. Please note that no entries will be accepted without a completed entry formDownload PDF Entry Form (419kb)

ironias portuguesas: but why?... I insist.

"O mais irónico desta leitura "nacional" das autárquicas é que ela implica atribuir ao PS um mérito que ele não teve: o de ter perdido as eleições porque não desistiu, no Governo, de tomar as medidas impopulares mas necessárias. O PS perdeu por outras razões e o absurdo é os seus adversários atribuírem-lhe o que seria uma louvável derrota. Infelizmente, nem sequer foi o caso. Antes fosse".
in Público, 14 Novembro 2005.

alguém escreveu e eu li:

«Lygia Fagundes Telles corrigiu, "com todo o respeito", Eça de Queirós, para quem a língua falada do Brasil era "português com açúcar", enquanto, para si, ela é sobretudo "português com sal"».

in Público, 14 Outubro 2005.

usa-se

usa-se

em Londres está na moda sapatos azul petróleo com franjinhas. sobretudo o azul petróleo - está muito na moda. ainda mais em dias de chuva em plena romaria para Sloane Square para um magnífico lanche à inglesita.

enfim

'Do Not Use'
Aí está algo que os ingleses usam.
Haja paciência... porque afinal eu até gosto deles.

Festival

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation presents

The Largest Ever Festival of Portuguese Music
22 - 30 November 2005[ London , UK ]

Following the highly successful festivals of the past four years, Atlantic Waves 2005 continues to host the largest ever celebration of Portuguese music, outside of Portugal itself. Once again, Atlantic Waves features many of Portugal 's most distinguished artists performing a breathtaking variety of music, ranging from contemporary fado to experimental electronica, alternative pop to dancefloor grooves. The festival is a catalyst for the change in the way Portuguese music is represented abroad, nurturing creativity, and promoting diversity, excellence, eclecticism and innovation. It has also become a forum of interaction for a whole spectrum of nationalities and music styles, as the stage is set for collaborations between a number of well-known international musicians and their Portuguese counterparts.

This year, apart from the Portuguese contingent, the festival features artists from: UK , France , Italy , Austria , Macedonia , New Zealand , South Korea , Japan , Angola , and the US . This wide cross-section of nationalities and genres has been a key factor in the festival's success. With an extraordinary mix of music on offer between 22 and 30 November, the Atlantic Waves 2005 presents a very exciting line-up packed with artists exploring new music territories. Many will be performing in the UK for the first time.

The festival takes place in some of London 's most prestigious venues, including the South Bank Centre, Cargo, and Spitz.

The programme for 2005 includes:
Fado, with Joana Amendoeira offering a fresh approach to the classical side of the genre, and one of its best contemporary male voices, Helder Moutinho ; Blues and Rock'n'Roll with the presences of Wraygunn , Dead Combo with Jim Black , and The Legendary Tiger Man Vs Billy Jenkins ; an irresistible night of Alternative Pop offered by veterans The Gift , Fat Freddy , and the ex-Raincoats Ana da Silva ; Contemporary Classical music, courtesy of Lontano ; Global Dancefloor Groves brought in from a parallel universe by Blasted Mechanism, who will be sharing the night with 1-Uik Project (One Week Project) ; Experimental Electronica by: Tonne with Américo Rodrigues , Simon Fisher Turner with Vitor Joaquim and Lia , and Aki Onda with Adriana Sá and Hugo Barbosa ; plus two nights of Free Jazz and Improvisation, the first featuring: Sei Miguel Quartet with Joe Morris , Manuel Mota / Okkyung Lee / Toshio Kajiwara / Tim Barnes, and Ernesto Rodrigues / Guilherme Rodrigues / Angharad Davies / Masafumi Ezaki / Alessandro Bosetti ; and the second with three more combos formed by: Rafael Toral / Oren Marshall / César Burago , Margarida Garcia / Barry Weisblat / John Tilbury / Eddie Prévost , and Carlos Bechegas / Joëlle Léandre .


“Every year about this time, two parallel sets of invaders sweep through London, one coordinated by Serious under the banner of the London Jazz Festival, the other by the Gulbenkian Foundation under the name Atlantic Waves” Charlie Gillett BBC London
"Atlantic Waves presents a hip and intriguing showcase of a very modern and multi-racial Portugal " Time Out
"Atlantic Waves festival is back, bigger and better" Songlines


FULL PROGRAMME DETAILS:

Joana AmendoeiraHelder MoutinhoFado Tuesday 22 November 2005 7:30pm The Spitz £12
WraygunnDead Combo with Jim BlackThe Legendary Tiger Man vs Billy JenkinsBlues 'n 'Rock 'n' Roll Wednesday 23 November 2005 7:30pm The Spitz £10
The GiftFat FreddyAna da Silva Alternative Pop Thursday 24 November 2005 7:30pm The Spitz £10
LontanoContemporary ClassicalFriday 25 November 2005 7:30pm Purcell Room £12
Blasted Mechanism1-Uik Project (One Week Project)Global Dancefloor GroovesSunday 27 November 2005 6pm to 12am Cargo £10
Tonne with Américo RodriguesSimon Fisher Turner with Vitor Joaquim and LiaAki Onda with Adriana Sá and Hugo BarbosaExperimental ElectronicaMonday 28 November 2005 7:30pm The Spitz £10
Sei Miguel Quartet with Joe MorrisManuel Mota / Okkyung Lee / Toshio Kajiwara / Tim BarnesErnesto Rodrigues / Guilherme Rodrigues / Angharad DaviesMasafumi Ezaki / Alessandro BosettiFree Jazz + ImprovisationTuesday 29 November 2005 7:30pm The Spitz £10
Rafael Toral / Oren Marshall / César BuragoMargarida Garcia / Barry Weisblat / John Tilbury / Eddie PrévostCarlos Bechegas / Joëlle Léandre Free Jazz + ImprovisationWednesday 30 November 2005 7:30pm The Spitz £10
Atlantic Waves info: 020 7908 7622 info@atlanticwaves.org.uk http://www.atlanticwaves.org.uk/
MEDIA PARTNERS: Songlines, Vida Nova, Resonance 104.4fm

Sophie says

Roll Deep Cargo, London

"But anyway, back to the album ... " This will prove the leitmotif of tonight's show, as the Roll Deep collective find themselves yo-yoing between two distinct worlds. In one they are wannabe pop stars signed to the same EMI subsidiary as Joss Stone, on stage to promote their latest fun product and shift some units. In the other, they are lynchpins of the underground grime scene, fast-flowing MCs who spit subversive words at the speed of light and answer to nobody. The problem is that both of these worlds are real.

Sophie Heawood
Wednesday October 12, 2005
The Guardian

exhibition

The British Museum's Persians exhibition

This autumn the British Museum in London is hosting the Persians exhibition, on show until January 8.
As well as writing an article revealing the thinking behind the exhibition, director Neil MacGregor below chooses five objects that tell the story of the largest political unit the ancient world had ever seen, and describes their significance.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/0,8542,1590358,00.html

ouvi

bom balanço o de Zita Swoon.

músicos em apuros

Hurricane Katrina has devasted the New Orleans music community. Right now, musicians need support, as they are spread across the country. One day, hopefully, they will get back to their home city. But in the mean time, they need instruments, gigs, transportation and so much more.
The following organizations are recommended if you would like to support the New Orleans music community.
Jazz Foundation of America: www.jazzfoundation.org
MusiCares Foundation: www.grammy.com/musicares
New Orleans Musicians Clinic: www.wwoz.org/clinic
Preservation Hall: www.preservationhall.com
Project HEAL: www.acadianaartscouncil.org
Tipitina’s Foundation: www.tipitinasfoundation.org

in Downbeat.

alguém escreveu e eu li:

"O destaque maior vai, naturalmente, para Billy Childish, senhor de um longo e vitoriano bigode condizente com o currículo. Com mais de 100 discos editados e uma actividade que extravasa a música (é também poeta, pensador espiritual, pintor, escritor e foi editor de uma fanzine punk), é uma figura importante do rock"n"roll e um histórico do punk da década de 70, que nos seus múltiplos projectos perpetua o género, se o entendermos como a apologia da energia e do sentimento sobre a técnica. A revista norte-americana "Alternative Press" afirma que "de todos os sobreviventes do punk dos anos 70, Childish é o único que não se vendeu ou acabou a fazer música horrível". Já a organização do Barreiro Rocks chama-lhe líder do garage punk europeu".
in Y, 7 Outubro, 2005.

na primeira pessoa

"3. Mas se há quem tenha ganho e quem tenha perdido, para mim ninguém perdeu nesta campanha como as sondagens, ou melhor, o uso que se fez delas. Já ninguém pode negar que elas foram utilizadas para todo o tipo de manipulações. E já não se trata apenas de encorajar ou desencorajar certas votações, agora até serviram para concentrar audiências televisivas em pseudocombates artificialmente encenados.
Sem nenhum respeito pela verdade, pelos candidatos e, sobretudo, pelos eleitores e a sua liberdade de escolha.Tudo é feito de forma legal, porque a lei prevê que sob a forma de projecções de indecisos todos os tipos de cenários possam ser avançados. À medida do freguês. E não há portanto fiscalização nenhuma que possa impedir a repetição da manipulação livre e descarada.
Está sempre tudo de acordo com o inquérito, com os cenários fornecidos pela empresa de sondagens, e o cliente (jornal, televisão, partido) quer justamente escolher segundo os seus critérios.Quer isto dizer que não há solução? Depende da sinceridade com que se discute o assunto, ou da falta dela. Se o objectivo for mesmo o de proteger a democracia na sua autenticidade, então teremos de regressar à proibição da publicação das sondagens no período da campanha eleitoral. Quem quiser mesmo informação que encomende sondagens e as pague, mas não para divulgar o que quer que seja. Mas se a intenção for a de não afrontar o poder das televisões, então faça-se mais uma revisão cosmética da lei, apele-se para uma fiscalização de uma qualquer entidade, ou seja, deixe-se ficar tudo na mesma.
Engenheiro civil".
Manuel Queiró in Público, 12 de outubro 2005.