Chevalier de Ribes

Let's go home Debbie

2012-01-28T15:58:00.000+01:00

My favourite movie from all the time.

Expansió Corona d'Aragó pel Mediterrani (s. XIII i XIV)

2012-01-24T18:05:00.001+01:00

2012-01-20T15:03:00.002+01:00

www.thestoeckleincollection.com

Bunk House, David Stoecklein

About the universal quest for human connection

2012-01-19T10:50:00.005+01:00

On a cold and dreary November afternoon, the cozy lobby of the Chateau Marmont calls to mind Dublin's once historic Morrison's Hotel, where Albert Nobbs, the title character in the new gender-bending drama starring Glenn Close, works as a waiter. Clad in black, Close and her costar Janet McTeer sit side by side in armchairs, digging into identical tuna salads and pots of English Breakfast tea — both equally exhilarated, if exhausted.

For Close, the film's Friday opening, a one-week theatrical run that precedes a wider January release, represents the culmination of a 30-year artistic odyssey, one that last week netted both actresses nominations for Golden Globe and SAG awards.

"I still can't quite believe that we did it," Close said, falling back into her chair.

"It's very unreal, isn't it?" McTeer observed.

Based on the short story by 19th century Irish writer George Moore, "Albert Nobbs" stars Close as a middle-aged sexual innocent who masquerades as a man to secure employment in poverty-stricken 1890s Ireland. Quiet and withdrawn, Albert has been leading a double life, taping down her breasts and dressing as a man for so long she's lost touch with who she once was. British actress McTeer plays Hubert Page, a lesbian secretly living in domestic bliss with the love of her life.

Despite the fact that both characters have suffered violence at the hands of men in their lives, Close says the film is not about gender politics but rather the universal quest for human connection.

"It's not a story about lesbianism," Close said. "For Albert, it's about survival; it's only about sexual identity in that she has none."

Added McTeer: "It's a film about choices, poverty and being on the receiving end of living in a man's world in a time when being a woman — they really got the short end of the lollipop."

Those themes of injustice and inequality helped make "Albert Nobbs" a passion project for Close, who first played the character in an Obie Award-winning off-Broadway production in 1982. She not only stars in the film — she also co-produced it and co-wrote the screenplay with Irish novelist John Banville and Gabriella Prekop. She even penned the lyrics for the movie's theme song, a melancholic Irish "lullaby" composed by Brian Byrne and sung by Sinead O'Connor. (The song received a Golden Globe nomination as well.)

"I just always felt that somehow, this weird little story was a good one. And I'm a sucker for what I think are good stories," Close said.

Still, Close struggled to find financing for the near $8-million production. Close invested "quite a bit" of her own money in the movie, and after tapping every possible financial resource in Hollywood, she took to out-of-the-box fundraising. On a lark, Close traveled to Dallas in 2010 with co-producer Bonnie Curtis for a small dinner with five wealthy Texas couples. During the evening, Close sang the "Sunset Boulevard" tune "With One Look" and "A Cockeyed Optimist" from "South Pacific." to a piano accompaniment. It worked.

"One of the couples decided to give us a million dollars," Close said.

Even after the money was in place and Rodrigo Garcia ("Nine Lives," HBO's "In Treatment") was hired to direct, "Albert Nobbs'" 34-day Dublin shoot was riddled with logistical problems. Chief among them: a vicious winter storm that had the actors clutching hot water bottles between takes and which resulted in Close's getting pneumonia during filming.

"It was nerve-racking to the bitter end," Garcia said. "There were many times where we thought, 'This movie is not gonna get made.' But I'd jumped on a bandwagon that was already fiercely committed — Glenn's bandwagon."

Garcia, who worked with Close twice previously on the films "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her" and "Nine Lives," says her focused fervor was contagious and helped the production land actors like Pauline Collins and Jonathan Rhys Meyers for smaller roles. "Glenn's ability to summon people is amazing," Garcia said. "So many people wanted to do it, at any cost, just because it was Glenn's passionate dream."

McTeer, an acclaimed stage actress whose starring role in 1999's "Tumbleweeds" earned her an Oscar nomination, said taking on the role of Hubert was intimidating. Not because of Close's personal investment in the project, or because the part called for a somewhat shocking above-the-waist reveal, but because the character "was pretty pivotal," McTeer said. "If you didn't really believe, that everybody believed, that Hubert was a guy, then the story lost its credibility."

The gender transformation was that much more challenging for the actresses given the conscious decision to avoid disguises and heavy makeup when morphing them into wind-blistered men. Close, Garcia and special makeup effects designer Matthew W. Mungle didn't want the movie to have a "Tootsie" feel, nor did they rely on CGI effects to doctor Albert and Hubert's faces.

Aside from relatively minor accessories such as false nose tips, earlobe extensions and wigs, the actresses had to rely on their faces, alone, for transformation. That challenge — of portraying a woman who's portraying a man — was part of what drew Close to the project in the first place, and what compelled her to push on to bring the play to the big screen for three decades.

"On film, it's twice as challenging to do as on stage," Close said. "Onstage, it's all one wide shot. But in film, you go into somebody's soul. And the whole challenge of Albert is what do you show on your face? Because this is somebody who's used her face as a mask for 30 years. But as actresses, we seek to push ourselves creatively."

Close and McTeer became fast friends while filming, and they say that even with "Albert Nobbs" set to open in theaters, their on-screen collaboration is nowhere near finished. After production on the film wrapped, Close asked the writers on her TV series "Damages" to create a role for McTeer — she plays an attorney on the fifth and final season of the show.

"We're in each others' contracts now," McTeer said with a laugh.

"Until we're 95," Close added. "In our wheelchairs!"

By Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, Dec 22 2011.

2012-01-13T15:18:00.001+01:00

No Name on the Bullet (1959) - IMDb

2012-01-09T10:52:00.002+01:00

O is it up the misty mountain

Where wild flowers bind the ground

Is it down by the rushing river

Where force wears those boulders down

Is it underneath my covers

Is it trapped inside my brain

Is it up above the misty mountain

Is it up above the rushing river

Is it up above the bed of longing

Where the eagle takes the wind?

Misty Mountain, Ferron, 1980.

"Ombra mai fu" - Malena Ernman

2012-01-06T20:50:00.000+01:00

Wanted Woman

2012-01-04T12:12:00.000+01:00

From “Wanted Woman' in Vogue Paris April 2011.

Model Isabeli Fontana

Shot by David Sims.

True beauty comes from what’s real and natural

2012-01-01T13:24:00.003+01:00

2011-12-25T00:06:00.003+01:00

Seven days before the end of the year

As they fell the last drops of mist
on the muzzle of a lost reindeer
on the horizon of stars and galaxies intertwined
I go wandering through the centuries, looking for the right word
that defines the particle captured by a stolen kiss.

Eva T. Ribes

2011-12-20T09:27:00.000+01:00

2011-12-18T02:58:00.002+01:00

Lubbock, TX, 1940– Matador, A Texas Ranch: Seven cowboys sitting along corral fence draped w. their chaps (which they don’t wear while not working), as they wait for brand irons to heat up during cattle roundup at Matador Ranch, the second largest in the state. –photo by Hansel Mieth.

A Cowboy Christmas

2011-12-16T14:05:00.002+01:00

By Jack Sorenson

By Carol Walker

Mike Beck : Patrick

2011-12-16T13:55:00.000+01:00

My name is Patrick and the man who rides me
He feels what I feel
He thinks what I think
And his touch goes down to my feet

When I'm turned out in the golden hills
I eat the sweetest grass
That grows under the oak trees
Where the fog drifts to the ground

My name is Patrick
And I sleep on the ridges
Where the wind off the ocean
Brings the scent of manzanita
And it blows through my mane

Mike Beck : http://www.mikebeck.com

2011-12-13T23:29:00.001+01:00

A Cowboy's Prayer
(Written for Mother)

Oh Lord, I've never lived where churches
grow.
I love creation better as it stood
That day You finished it so long ago
And looked upon Your work and called it
good.
I know that others find You in the light
That's sifted down through tinted window
panes,
And yet I seem to feel You near tonight
In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains.

I thank You, Lord, that I am placed so well,
That You have made my freedom so com-
plete;
That I'm no slave of whistle, clock or bell,
Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.
Just let me live my life as I've begun
And give me work that's open to the sky;
Make me a pardner of the wind and sun,
And I won't ask a life that's soft or high.

Let me be easy on the man that's down;
Let me be square and generous with all.
I'm careless sometimes, Lord, when I'm in
town,
But never let 'em say I'm mean or small!
Make me as big and open as the plains,
As honest as the hawse between my knees,
Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
Free as the hawk that circles down the
breeze!

Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget.
You know about the reasons that are hid.
You understand the things that gall and fret;
You know me better than my mother did.
Just keep an eye on all that's done and said
And right me, sometimes, when I turn
aside,
And guide me on the long, dim, trail ahead
That stretches upward toward the Great
Divide.

Badger Clark (1883)

The Best of John Wayne Westerns

2011-12-08T20:23:00.000+01:00

2011-12-04T11:58:00.000+01:00

Barbara Carlotti - Cannes

2011-12-02T12:41:00.000+01:00

The Ladies of Llangollen, 1778

2011-12-01T10:24:00.007+01:00

The world forgetting, by the world forgot

Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen, XVIII century.

...

Nothing is so hard to bear as a train of happy days.

Goethe

Shirley Rumsey - Si la Noche Haze Escura

2011-11-30T15:14:00.000+01:00

Si la noche hace escura
y tan corto es el camino,
¿cómo no venís, amigo?
La media noche es pasada
y el que me pena no viene: mi ventura lo detiene,
porque soy muy desdichada.
Véome desamparada; gran pasión tengo conmigo.
¿Cómo no venís, amigo?

Francisco Guerrero (1528 - 1599)

Searching The Searchers

2011-11-29T00:46:00.009+01:00

Andy Devine

http://fiftieswesterns.wordpress.com/

Reverend Clayton: You wanna quit, Ethan?
Ethan: That'll be the day.

La Charra Mexicana

2011-11-27T12:25:00.006+01:00

Así cual mueren en occidente

los tibios rayos del astro rey,

así murieron mis ilusiones,

así extinguiéndose va mi fe.

Carmen Carmela, luz de mis ojos,

si luz no hubiera, habías de ser.

Hermoso faro de venturanza,

dulce esperanza, bello placer.

Perla preciosa de mis amores,

¿qué son las flores junto a ti?

Yo las contemplo una por una

y no hay ninguna igual a ti.

Carmen Carmela, luz de mis ojos,

si luz no hubiera, habías de ser.

Hermoso faro de venturanza,

dulce esperanza, bello placer.

---

Agustín Lara

2011-11-20T15:05:00.000+01:00

For all the cowboy and cowgirl poets around the world.

NO ES NO

2011-11-18T12:25:00.002+01:00

MANIFEST 25 DE NOVEMBRE DE 2011

Dia internacional per a l’eliminació de la violència envers les dones

Avui, 25 de novembre, administracions i societat civil ens apleguem per manifestar el

nostre rebuig envers la violència que pateixen les dones i expressar el nostre condol

per les dones que han estat víctimes de la violència masclista aquest any 2011,

lamentant i rebutjant no només les morts causades per aquesta violència, sinó totes

aquelles manifestacions violentes, sovint silencioses i silenciades, que mantenen

algunes dones sotmeses al terror o la humiliació.

La violència envers les dones és una vulneració dels drets humans i un obstacle per

assolir la pau i el progrés de les nacions i del pobles; no tan sols destrueix vides, sinó

que també soscava el desenvolupament de les dones en llibertat i la possibilitat que

puguin exercir la plena ciutadania en igualtat de condicions.

Aquesta violència és conseqüència de les relacions de poder històricament desiguals

entre dones i homes i té causes socioculturals profundament arrelades a l’imaginari

col·lectiu, per això és tant complexa la seva identificació i tan difícil la seva eradicació.

Per abordar la complexa realitat que envolta aquest fenomen cal garantir veritablement

els drets de les dones i reconstruir un nou model de ciutadania que permeti esborrar el

sexisme de les estructures socials, econòmiques i polítiques.

Actualment, disposem de noves eines i instruments per lluitar contra la violència.

Tenim la Llei del dret de les dones a eradicar la violència masclista que estableix els

mecanismes per reconèixer i avançar en garanties respecte al dret bàsic de les dones

a viure sense violència. També tenim un major coneixement sobre la situació de les

dones en la nostra societat i hem desplegat recursos per a l’atenció i per a la reparació

dels danys causats a les dones i els seus fills i filles, així com programes de

sensibilització, de prevenció i d’identificació precoç dels abusos.

Són molts els esforços que s’estan realitzant des de les institucions públiques i els

organismes internacionals, també des de les organitzacions no governamentals, des

de les associacions i entitats de dones i d’altres que lluiten per la igualtat, i fins i tot de

moltes persones que, a títol individual, s’han implicat en aquesta lluita, perquè només

amb la participació del conjunt de la societat serà possible avançar.

Som conscients, però, que cal seguir treballant per remoure els valors i els models

simbòlics que perpetuen els estereotips sexistes i fan possible la violència masclista.

Per això, cal seguir invertint esforços en la prevenció i la sensibilització social, i fer de

l’educació l’eina bàsica per abocar les generacions futures a viure en un món on les

relacions entre uns i altres estiguin lliures de violència.

Així doncs, avui, en el marc d’aquesta diada, totes i tots nosaltres volem renovar el

nostre compromís per seguir construint una nova cultura, basada en el respecte mutu,

l’autonomia i la llibertat per a tothom.

Centre cultural de dones Francesca Bonnemaison:

http://www.bonnemaison-ccd.org

Barcelona

Ana Vidovic : La Catedral - Agustin Barrios Mangoré

2011-11-16T16:21:00.000+01:00

2011-11-16T15:01:00.002+01:00

Melissa Etheridge - Ive loved you before

2011-11-16T00:08:00.000+01:00

Have I wandered through the desert?
Have I looked and learned all the stars?
Have I rode the days and nights on rails,
to get back where you are?
And every time I foundered,
it's your eyes I know for sure.

Salomé Stévenin

2011-11-13T12:24:00.003+01:00

Julie rend visite à son père dans le Sud de la France. Le père est amputé et vit seul dans une maison au bord de la mer. Père et fille ne savent comment se parler, se cherchent, s'effleurent, quelquefois se reconnaissent. Ils partagent le même désir pour les femmes. Cette complicité ambiguë est tolérable tant qu'elle reste silencieuse.

Réalisateur : Sylvie BALLYOT
Avec Salomé Stévenin, Bernard Blancan et Sophie Cattani
Format : HD / copie 35 mm / couleur
Durée : 20'
Date de tournage : 2006
Lieu de tournage: France

Festivals / Prix :

Sélectionné à la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs à CANNES 2007
Sélectionné au 29e Festival International du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Montpellier
Festival Européen du Film Court de Brest
Cinéfable
Festival de Villeurbanne
Festival de Vendôme
The 26th Chicago Lesbian and Gay internationale Film Festival
Pink Screens à Bruxelles
Festival de Sao Paulo- Cork
Prix de la meilleure interprétation pour Salomé Stevenin au festival
de Vendôme
Selectionné au festival de Clermont Ferrand 2008

2011-11-06T22:55:00.004+01:00

Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems. 1924.

Part Three: Love

VII

I HIDE myself within my flower,

That wearing on your breast,

You, unsuspecting, wear me too—

And angels know the rest.

I hide myself within my flower,

That, fading from your vase,

You, unsuspecting, feel for me

Almost a loneliness.

For the True Love

2011-10-31T21:12:00.000+01:00

I wish I could be there to share the moon...

America's Famous Lost Gold Mine: Superstition Mountain (Arizona)

2011-10-29T15:46:00.000+02:00

http://www.lost-dutchman.com/

Barry Storm
by Jim Bremner

Barry Storm was one of the seminal chroniclers of the Lost Dutchman legend. One of the first writers on the subject to actually go out and explore the regions he wrote about, his colorful and sometimes speculative books and stories have entertained and intrigued masses of treasure hunters and would-be adventurers for many years.Climenson explored the deserts around Phoenix, Arizona, and was particularly interested in the Superstition Mountains. He was fascinated by the history of the early miners from Mexico. He met Barry Goldwater, who also liked to spend time hiking and photographing the deserts, and they went on trips to the Superstition Mountains together. Barry Goldwater would later publish John’s first book, Trail of the Lost Dutchman, in 1939. John Climenson was then 29 years old. He created the pen name Barry Storm, and this became his new identity.(...)Barry Storm looked for lost mines and treasure, and went on expeditions into the Superstitions. He examined and interpreted Spanish miners’ symbols, and looked for and found clues on the many treasure maps that prospectors were finding or creating. Storm was one of the first authors of “lost treasure” books who went out and looked, and then came back and wrote about it, making his writing far more compelling and vivid than previous accounts.In 1943, while still living in the Phoenix area, Storm enlisted in the Army to help fight World War II. In his spare time, he continued to refine his thoughts and his research on the mining activity that had taken place in the Superstition Mountains. In 1945 he published his most important book, Thunder Gods Gold.That same year, Storm wrote several articles for Desert Magazine based on information from his books. An inveterate researcher, he would continuously update and append the information in his books and publish a new edition from time to time.

Johnny Cash - Big River

2011-10-29T12:33:00.000+02:00

To my father.

Juste quelqu'un de bien

2011-10-27T21:18:00.000+02:00

À ma Mère.

Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly

2011-10-25T18:16:00.000+02:00

Sir Philip Sidney

(30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586)

“Either I will find a way, or I will make one.”

Play the guitar

2011-10-20T20:48:00.000+02:00

Dwight Joakam - "This Drinkin´ Will Kill Me"

2011-10-19T13:39:00.000+02:00

If I stop Ill just die from your leavin

2011-10-16T13:36:00.001+02:00

Words and Music: Buffy Sainte-Marie

Indian legislation's on the desk of a do-right Congressman

He don't know much about the issues

So he picks up the phone and calls the senator out in Indian Country

A darling of the energy companies ripping off what's left

Of the reservation

I learned a safety rule, I don't know who to thank

Don't stand between the reservation and the corporate bank

They're sending federal tanks

It isn't nice but it's reality

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

I said deep in the earth

Won't you cover me with pretty lies

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

We got these energy companies, they're trying to take the land

And we got churches by the dozen trying to guide our hand

And sign our Mother Earth over to pollution, war, and greed (no, no)

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (I said deep in the earth)

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (Cover me with pretty lies)

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee

We got the federal marshalls, we got the covert spies

We got the liars by the fire, got the FBI

They lie in court and get nailed but still Leonard Peltier goes off to jail

The bullets don't match the gun!

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (an eighth of the reservation)

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (transferred in secret)

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (got your murder and intimidation)

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee (bury me, bury me, bury me)

SITTING BULL (1837—1890)

2011-10-14T13:29:00.002+02:00

Johnny Guitar, 1954

"For me, then, nobility is synonymous with a life of effort, ever set

on excelling oneself, in passing beyond what one is to what one sets

up as a duty and an obligation. In this way the noble life stands

opposed to the common or inert life, which reclines statically upon

itself, condemned to perpetual immobility, unless an external force

compels it to come out of itself. Hence we apply the term mass to this

kind of man- not so much because of his multitude as because of his

inertia.

As one advances in life, one realises more and more that the

majority of men- and of women- are incapable of any other effort than

that strictly imposed on them as a reaction to external compulsion.

And for that reason, the few individuals we have come across who are

capable of a spontaneous and joyous effort stand out isolated,

monumentalised, so to speak, in our experience. These are the select

men, the nobles, the only ones who are active and not merely reactive,

for whom life is a perpetual striving, an incessant course of

training. Training = askesis. These are the ascetics. * This apparent

digression should not cause surprise. In order to define the actual

mass-man, who is as much "mass" as ever, but who wishes to supplant

the "excellent, it has been necessary to contrast him with the two

pure forms which are mingled in him: the normal mass and the genuine

noble or man of effort."

"The Revolt of the Masses", Don Jose Ortega y Gasset (1930)

ORPHEUS

2011-10-13T21:35:00.003+02:00

Vrancx, Sebastian. Orpheus and the Beasts. Oil on panel. 55x69 cm. c. 1595. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Sonnets à Orphée (Muzot février 1922)

Sonnet I

Alors s’éleva un arbre. Ô pure élévation !
Ô Orphée chante ! Ô arbre si haut planté dans l’oreille !
Et tout se tut. Pourtant même dans ce grand silence
un nouveau début s’opère, signe et transformation.
Des animaux du silence se précipitèrent hors des claires
forêts déliées, des gîtes et des nids ;
et il advint alors que ce n’était ni ruse
pas plus que peur qui les rendaient si silencieux
Mais l’écoute. Rugissements, cris, brames
leur été trop petit dans leur coeur. Et là où
seule une cabane suffisait à recueillir cela,
Un refuge venu du plus sombre désir
avec un accès, aux montants branlants -
tu leur as créé un véritable temple dans l’oreille.

Rilke

Patsy Cline - I've Loved And Lost Again

2011-10-09T22:28:00.000+02:00

Victor McLaglen - Sergeant Quinncannon (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon/USA 1949)

2011-09-29T15:19:00.000+02:00

One of the greatest movies ever made

2011-09-28T17:46:00.005+02:00

Rio Grande, 1950

This is for all the lonely people

Thinking that life has passed them by

Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup

And ride that highway in the sky

This is for all the single people

Thinking that love has left them dry

Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup

You never know until you try

Well, I'm on my way

Yes, I'm back to stay

Well, I'm on my way back home

America, 1974

La Chevalerie

2011-09-28T16:17:00.001+02:00

Kirby Yorke in director John Ford's motion picture classic, Rio Grande, 1950

2011-09-27T09:07:00.002+02:00

A Song of the Plains

I am drunk with the winds of the desert,

With its colors of purple and gold.

With the sparkle and fire of the sunshine,

With its nights that are silent and cold.

I exult in its glorious freedom;

I quaff its intoxicant wine;

I delight in its generous stretches;

I am glad, for its beauties are mine.

Like a gem in its setting of mountains

It flashes its yellow and green;

It flushes from rose hue to scarlet,

It softens to silvery sheen.

And at night 'neath the star-stuffed heavens,

As near to my camp fire I rest,

With the smoke from my meerschaum upcurling,

And my head on the broad desert's breast.

There are songs from the sagebrush to cheer me,

As the south wind caresses the leaves.

There are voices that whisper a welcome,

There are perfumes borne in on the breeze,—

'Till my heart overflows with its gladness,

And my thoughts harbor nothing that's ill;

For a sweet benediction is whispered,

And at rest is my Plainsland so still.

by Katherine Fall Pettey, from Songs from the Sage Brush, 1910

2011-09-23T20:54:00.001+02:00

LA POETISA EN UN PUEBLO

¡Ya viene, mírala! ¿Quién?

—Ésa que saca las copias.

—Jesús, qué mujer tan rara.

—Tiene los ojos de loca.

Diga V., don Marcelino,

¿será verdad que ella sola

hace versos sin maestro?

—¡Qué locura!, no señora;

anoche nos convencimos

de que es mentira, en la boda:

si tiene esa habilidad

¿por qué no le hizo a la novia,

siendo tan amiga suya,

décimas o alguna cosa?

—Una décima, es preciso

dije— el novio está empeñado:

«ustedes se han engañado

me respondió, no improviso».

—Siendo la novia su amiga,

vamos, ¿no ha de hacerla usté?—

«Pero por Dios, si no sé,

¿no hasta que yo lo diga?»

La volvimos a rogar,

se levantó hecha una pólvora,

y en fin, de que vio el empeño

se fue huyendo de la boda.

Esos versos los compone

otra cualquiera persona,

y ella luego, por lucirse,

sin duda se los apropia.

—Porque digan que es romántica.

—¡Qué mujer tan mentirosa!

—Dicen que siempre está echando

relaciones ella sola.

—Se enseñará a comedianta.

—Ya se ha sentado ¡la mona!

Más valía que aprendiera

a barrer que a decir coplas.

—Vamos a echarla de aquí.

—¿Cómo?— Riéndonos todas.

—Dile a Paula que se ría.

—Y tú a Isabel, y tú a Antonia.

Ja ja ja ja ja ja ja.

¡Más fuerte, que no lo nota!

Ja ja ja ja ja ja ja.

Ya mira, ya se incomoda,

Ya se levanta y se va...

¡Vaya con Dios la gran loca!

Carolina Coronado

Badajoz, 1845

The duel

2011-09-23T11:24:00.005+02:00

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Legendary duels

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (1804)

On July 11, 1804, years of escalating personal and political tensions culminated in the most famous duel in American history: the standoff between Alexander Hamilton, a leading Federalist and former secretary of the treasury, and Aaron Burr, who was then serving as vice president under Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton had come to detest Burr, whom he regarded as an opportunist, and vehemently campaigned against him during his failed 1804 bid to become governor of New York. Burr resolved to restore his reputation by challenging Hamilton to an “affair of honor,” as duels were then known. The enemies met at the dueling grounds near Weehawken, New Jersey—the same spot where Hamilton’s son had died defending his father’s honor in November 1801. (The loss inspired Hamilton to denounce dueling and lend his voice to the growing movement against the practice.) According to some accounts, Hamilton never planned to aim at Burr, hoping instead to fire a symbolic shot into the air and resolve the matter peacefully. Whatever his intentions, Hamilton missed his opponent but was promptly shot in the stomach; he died the next afternoon. Few affairs of honor actually resulted in deaths at the time, and the nation was outraged by the killing of a man as eminent as Alexander Hamilton. Public opinion turned against Burr, who was charged with murder and later arrested for treason in an unrelated incident. Acquitted on a technicality, he fled to Europe before returning to private life in New York.

Lady Almeria Braddock and Mrs. Elphinstone (1792)

A certain Mrs. Elphinstone expected no more than a cup of tea when she paid a social call to Lady Almeria Braddock’s London home in 1792. But the visit veered off into decidedly unladylike territory when the hostess, evidently enraged by a casual comment Mrs. Elphinstone made about her age, challenged her guest to a duel in Hyde Park. According to reports, Mrs. Elphinstone fired her pistol first, knocking Lady Braddock’s hat to the ground. The women then took up swords, and Lady Braddock got her revenge by wounding her opponent in the arm. The “Petticoat Duel,” as it came to be known, ended without further incident when Mrs. Elphinstone agreed to write a letter of apology.

Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro (1612)

Considered the preeminent Japanese swordsmen of their time, archrivals Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro met on the remote shores of Ganryū Island to settle their differences once and for all. According to legend, Musashi showed up several hours late to psych out his opponent, bearing a giant wooden sword he had fashioned from the oar of a boat. Kojiro attacked the tardy samurai with his signature “swallow cut” move, but before his blade was lowered Musashi dealt him a fatal blow. Pursued by furious Kojiro supporters who considered his delayed arrival unfair, Musashi hopped back into his boat and rowed to safety. Later in life, Musashi would become an acclaimed painter.

Édouard Manet and Edmond Duranty (1870)

In February 1870, the French painter Édouard Manet flew into a fit of rage after reading a single dispassionate sentence about two of his works penned by his longtime friend, the critic Edmond Duranty. The artist stormed into Paris’ Café Guerbois, slapped Duranty in the face and challenged him to a sword duel. According to police reports, the men faced each other on February 23 in the forest of Saint-Germain, with the famous writer Émile Zola attending Manet as his “second.” The adversaries’ swords allegedly struck only once, but with such force that both blades buckled. When Duranty sustained a minor wound, Manet declared his honor sufficiently defended, and before long the two Parisians had patched up their relationship and were once again sharing meals at the Guerbois.

Alexander Pushkin and Georges d’Anthès (1837)

Perhaps more so than the man wielding the pistol, it was pure jealously that felled the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin at the height of his career. In the 1830s, George d’Anthès aggressively pursued Pushkin’s beautiful wife Natalya in Saint Petersburg, earning verbal threats from the famous—and notoriously pugnacious—writer in return. On January 10, 1837, the Frenchman wed Natalya’s sister Ekaterina, perhaps to dispel rumors of an affair and quell Pushkin’s wrath. Nevertheless, on January 27 the newly minted brothers-in-law met in a duel. D’Anthès escaped with a gash on his arm, but Pushkin took a bullet to the stomach and died two days later.

Isabella de Carazzi and Diambra de Pettinella (1552)

Fabio de Zeresola may have been the most sought-after bachelor in 16th-century Naples. At a time when many duels were fought between men for a disputed lady’s favor, two young women—Isabella de Carazzi and Diambra de Pettinella—competed for Zeresola’s affection in a public swordfight. Although the outcome is unknown, the sensational event kept gossips’ tongues wagging for decades to come. In 1636, the Spanish artist Jose de Riberta immortalized the story in his famous painting “Duelo de Mujeres” (“Duel of Women”).

Ben Jonson and Gabriel Spenser (1598)

A contemporary of William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson overcame a rough upbringing to become an accomplished playwright, poet and actor. He also cultivated a bad-boy reputation through his ruthless exploits as a soldier, his hard-drinking lifestyle and his inflammatory writings. On September 22, 1598, he killed the actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel that may have arisen after the two men quarreled over which theater troupe was Elizabethan England’s finest. Sentenced to hang for the murder, Jonson used a legal loophole known as the “benefit of clergy,” reciting a Bible verse to escape the death penalty; his property was ultimately confiscated and his thumb branded. Jonson’s hit play “Every Man in His Humor” was produced the same year, with Shakespeare himself playing a role.

Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson (1806)

More than two decades before he became the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson faced off against Charles Dickinson, a lawyer regarded as one of the best shots in the area, in Logan, Kentucky. The proud and volatile Jackson, a former senator and representative of Tennessee, called for the duel after Dickinson described his wife Rachel as a bigamist, referring to a legal error in her 1791 divorce from her first husband. On May 30, 1806, the two men met with pistols in hand, standing 24 feet apart in accordance with dueling custom. After the signal, Dickinson fired first, grazing Jackson’s breastbone and breaking some of his ribs. Jackson, a former Tennessee militia leader, maintained his stance and fired back, fatally wounding his opponent. It was one of several duels Jackson was said to have participated in during his lifetime, the majority of which were allegedly in defense of Rachel’s honor.

Source: http://www.history.com/news/2011/07/11/history-at-40-paces-legendary-duels/

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (1804)

Duelo de mujeres, José de Ribera, el Españoleto (1591-1652)

Carthage

2011-09-22T22:20:00.006+02:00

The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas, Sir Nathaniel Dance Holland (1766)

The Death of Dido, Sacchi Andrea (1599-1661)

Aeneas and Dido in Carthage, Claude Lorrain (1675)

Dido building Carthage; or, the Rise of The Carthaginian Empire, Turner (1815)

The American West of John Ford (1971)

2011-09-13T15:24:00.000+02:00

The Musicians, 1595

2011-09-12T23:09:00.002+02:00

The three figures of The Musicians are indisputably androgynous, with, in the words of Barbara Savina in Caravaggio, "...dreamy, languid expressions, and smooth, oval faces with chubby cheeks, framed by soft wavy hair."

On the far left, Cupid is absorbed with his grapes while suggesting that human passions are conveyed by love of music. The arrogant-looking boy in the center, whose red cloak dominates this Caravaggio masterpiece, is tuning a lute whose strings were erased in the past; the boy with his back to the viewer studies a piece of music whose title has been lost over the years.The direct eye contact from the third boy, who prepares to play a horn barely visible on the right, invites the viewer into this painting.

One charming night

2011-09-02T12:16:00.000+02:00

XI

O dous regars, ô yeus pleins de beauté,
Petits jardins, pleins de fleurs amoureuses
Où sont d'Amour les flesches dangereuses,
Tant à vous voir mon oeil s'est arresté !

O coeur felon, ô rude cruauté,
Tant tu me tiens de façons rigoureuses,
Tant j'ay coulé de larmes langoureuses,
Sentant l'ardeur de mon coeur tourmenté !

Donques, mes yeus, tant de plaisir avez,
Tant de bons tours par ses yeus recevez :
Mais toy, mon coeur, plus les vois s'y complaire,

Plus tu languiz, plus en as de soucis,
Or devinez si je suis aise aussi,
Sentant mon oeil estre à mon coeur contraire

Louise Labé, Lyon, 1555

XII. Purcell: Music for a while / Andreas Scholl

2011-08-28T22:12:00.000+02:00

Monteverdi: Zefiro Torna Voices of Music (HD1080p)

2011-08-23T15:29:00.000+02:00

Zefiro torna, e di soavi accenti
l'aer fa grato e'l piè discioglie a l'onde
e mormorando tra le verdi fronde
fa danzar al bel suon su'l prato i fiori.
Inghirlandato il crin Fillide e Clori
note temprando amor care e gioconde
e da monti e da valli ime e profonde
raddoppian l'armonia gli antri canori.
Sorge più vaga in Ciel l'aurora el Sole
sparge più luci d'or più puro argento
fregia di Teti il bel ceruleo manto.
Sol io per selve abbandonate e sole,
l'ardor di due begli occhi el mio tormento
come vuol mia ventura hor piango, hor canto.

Zephyr returns, and with sweet accents
enchants the air and frees the waves' feet,
and murmuring among the green leaves,
makes the flowers dance to his sweet sound.
With garlanded hair, Phyllis and Cloris sing
love-songs, dear and joyful to them,
and through the mountains and valleys,
high and low, the echoing caves redouble their music.
Dawn rises beautifully in the sky, and the sun
pours down the brightest gold, embellishing
the sky-blue mantle of Thetis with the purest silver.
Alone I wander through a lonely and deserted wood,
the ardor of two lovely eyes, and my torment,
as my fortune demands, now weep, now sing.

Horse With No Name

2011-08-22T20:33:00.000+02:00

In the desert you can remember your name
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain...

America, 1973

I always felt so much more comfortable in the Western

2011-08-19T13:03:00.005+02:00

Joel Albert McCrea (1905–1990)

I don't believe in anti-heroes. Duke Wayne played a mean guy but never an anti-hero.

2011-08-17T21:54:00.002+02:00

Joan Armatrading, Willow, 1977

2011-08-10T13:33:00.000+02:00

Thunder
Don't go under the sheets
Lightning
Under a tree
In the rain and snow
I'll be your fireside
Come running to me
When things get out of hand
Running to me
When it's more than you can stand

I said I'm strong
Straight
Willing
To be a shelter
In a storm
Your willow
Oh willow
When the sun is out

2011-08-07T18:32:00.009+02:00

Una nit més amb Anne Lister

Desperto una nit travessant segles

a contrallum, els cercles de Dante

i et trobo de peu a la xemeneia de Halifax

mig dormida (mig vestida)

i mig alterada

amb el diari obert a la mà :

Could not sleep last night,

dozing, hot and disturbed ...

a violent longing for a female companion

came over me.

Never remember feeling it so painfully before…

It was absolute pain to me.

Et vaig besar, un altre cop,

seixanta cinc mil set-cents dies

besant-te,

cent vuitanta anys desitjant-te,

amb tot el cos.

E. T. Ribes

The Diaries of Anne Lister (1791–1840)

2011-08-05T13:16:00.005+02:00

Wednesday 3 Nov.

Mrs Barlow told me this morning she was 21 when she was married in 18o8 to Lt.Col. Barlow of the 61st Foot, by special licence in Guernsey. Colonel Barlow was 38,about 18 years older than she. She will be 38 the 28th December next . . . In wishingher goodnight she quietly let me put my arms around her waist & gently press her &very gently kiss her. She stood, too, with her right thigh a little within my left, incontact - which she has never permitted before. She likes me certainly.

...

More information:

http://books.google.com/books?id=zErF-Sp_AWUC&lpg=PA46&dq=diaries%20anne%20lister&pg=PA46#v=onepage&q&f=false

WHITBREAD, Helena, I know my own heart: the diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840, New York University Press, 1992.

Cooperativa Agropecuaria de Soses

2011-08-05T12:00:00.004+02:00

La terra, la terra

quan crema a les mans

et gela els peus

i et cull del cap

tots els sentiments amagats.

ETR

Unisca amor in noi

2011-08-05T00:22:00.000+02:00

Unisca amor in noi
Gli miei, gli affettituoi
Venere bella.

http://www.haendel.it/composizioni/libretti/pdf/hwv_31.pdf

XI. Handel: Orlando ~ Vorrei poterti amar, il cor ti vorrei dar

2011-08-04T17:38:00.000+02:00

MEDORO

Vorrei poterti amar
il cor ti vorrei dar
ma sai che mio non è.
E s'io ti dassi 'l cor
a un cor, ch'è traditor,
tu non daresti fé.

Desert Hearts

2011-07-31T12:08:00.002+02:00

Patricia Charbonneau

...

Desert Places

by Robert Frost

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it--it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less--

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars--on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

L'harmonia universal

2011-07-26T19:00:00.009+02:00

Sóc tots els segles,

totes les ciutats,

totes les lletres,

i el infinit batec

d'una composició musical

Sóc tots els àtoms

que amb la puresa

associen

pensaments històrics

i veritats desnodrides

Sóc la mà i l’oïda

que explora les esferes

amb les vibracions

del Llaüt

Sóc tots els segles

de música i silenci

totes les paraules pronunciades

i impronunciables

Sóc l'astre

que es trasplanta com una llavor

de jardí en jardí,

de segle en segle,

i d'era en era,

com si no hi fos.

...

Eva T. Ribes

Pure Beauty

2011-07-21T19:30:00.000+02:00

2011-07-16T19:38:00.005+02:00

(...)
y sobre

la mesa, en la cintura
del verano,
el tomate,
astro de tierra,
estrella
repetida
y fecunda,
nos muestra
sus circunvoluciones,
sus canales,
la insigne plenitud
y la abundancia
sin hueso,
sin coraza,
sin escamas ni espinas,
nos entrega
el regalo
de su color fogoso
y la totalidad de su frescura.

...

(...)

and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth,
recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

...
Oda al tomate, Pablo Neruda

2011-07-13T12:06:00.000+02:00

The Bucking Bronco

My love is a rider, wild horses he breaks,
But he promised to quit it all just for my sake;
He sold off his saddle, his spurs, and his rope,
And there'll be no more riding, and that's what I hope.

The first time I saw him was early last spring,
A-riding a bronco, a high-headed thing;
He laughed and he talked as they danced to and fro
He promised he'd not ride no other bronco.

My love has a gun that has gone to the bad,
Which makes all the ladies to feel very sad;
He give me some presents, among them a ring
But the return I gave him was a far better thing.

Now, all you young ladies that live on the Platte
Don't marry the cowboy who wears a white hat;
He'll pet you and court you and then be will go
And ride up the trail on another bronco.

Link: http://lonehand.com/cowboy_songs.htm

Stag Party

2011-07-13T11:30:00.004+02:00

Stag Dance

On the frontier women were generally scarce until later on. However, when the music started this didn't stop the men from dancing, and the "stag dance" was quite a common--and accepted--pastime.

The Lost Pardner

I ride alone and hate the boys I meet.
Today, some way, their laughin' hurts me so.
I hate the mockin'-birds in the mesquite--
And yet I liked 'em just a week ago.
I hate the steady sun that glares, and glares!
The bird songs make me sore.
I seem the only thing on earth that cares
'Cause Al ain't here no more!

'Twas just a stumblin' hawse, a tangled spur--
And, when I raised him up so limp and weak,
One look before his eyes begun to blur
And then--the blood that wouldn't let 'im speak!
And him so strong, and yet so quick he died,
And after year on year
When we had always trailed it side by side,
He went--and left me here!

We loved each other in the way men do
And never spoke about it, Al and me,
But we both knowed, and knowin' it so true
Was more than any woman's kiss could be.
We knowed--and if the way was smooth or rough,
The weather shine or pour,
While I had him the rest seemed good enough--
But he ain't here no more!

What is there out beyond the last divide?
Seems like that country must be cold and dim.
He'd miss the sunny range he used to ride,
And he'd miss me, the same as I do him.
It's no use thinkin'--all I'd think or say
Could never make it clear.
Out that dim trail that only leads one way
He's gone--and left me here!

The range is empty and the trails are blind,
And I don't seem but half myself today.
I wait to hear him ridin' up behind
And feel his knee rub mine the good old way
He's dead--and what that means no man kin tell.
Some call it "gone before."
Where? I don't know, but God! I know so well
That he ain't here no more!
...

Charles "Badger" Clark

(1883 - 1957)

Link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=1Ubyg8_vxZwC&lpg=PA36&dq=Charles%20Badger%20Clark&pg=PA36#v=onepage&q=Charles%20Badger%20Clark&f=false

Chely Wright at Capital Pride: Damn Liar

2011-07-12T15:17:00.000+02:00

k.d. lang - Wash me clean

2011-07-11T23:04:00.000+02:00

You swim
Swim through my veins
Drown me
In your reign
My desire
Carries no shame
My will
Will harbour no pain

Wash
Wash me clean
Mend my wounded seams
Cleanse my tarnished dreams

Drink
Drink from my spell
Quench
Love's drying well

Wash
Wash me clean
Mend my wounded seams
Cleanse my tarnished dreams

kd lang & The Reclines - I'll Be Back

2011-07-11T22:47:00.000+02:00

I had a dream I was your hero

2011-07-11T01:51:00.007+02:00

http://chnm.gmu.edu/dimenovels/intro.html

Damn I wish I was your Lover

2011-07-10T19:07:00.000+02:00

Amy Ray, Cold Shoulder

2011-07-07T16:18:00.000+02:00

Portrait of a cowboy photographer, 1905 - 1910

2011-07-06T09:52:00.009+02:00

Erwin E. Smith (1886–1947) always wanted to be a cowboy and an artist. When he was a boy growing up in Bonham, a town in Fannin County in North Texas, the era of the great trail drives was over, and he feared that the old ways of the cowboy were disappearing. However, the legend and myth of the cowboy was just beginning. Popular literature, art by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, and the fledgling film industry promoted a romantic, yet often inaccurate, image of the cowboy. For his part, Smith resolved to honor the life of the cowboy by presenting as true a portrayal as possible.

Aware that an artist must know his subject intimately to capture details accurately, Smith took every opportunity to gain experience as a working cowboy. As a boy he spent summers on his uncle's ranch near Quanah, Texas. The land bordered the Great Western Cattle Trail, which thousands of longhorns followed north in the 1880s. During the summers, he began to acquire the skills to be a cowhand. Smith attended two of the best art schools in the country to study sculpture and painting. But eventually he chose photography as his way to preserve a record of the open-range cowboy life. Between 1905 and 1912, he photographed roundups and other scenes on ranches in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Smith's photographs, showing both the romance and harshness of cowboy life, are some of the best-known images of the southwestern range early in the last century.

...

Online Collection guide:

http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/smith/collection.php

2011-07-06T09:19:00.004+02:00

El cucut del Mas

2011-07-04T12:30:00.007+02:00

Lluny,
contra anys i panys
vola el cucut
Se'n va amb la poma
i amb la cirera torna
Si afora plora
al Mas canta
i la pell del pi aborrona.

A la posta,

a l'ombra de l'estelada,

només a ell s'abraça
...

Eva T. Ribes

L'élégance de Bordeaux

2011-06-27T09:49:00.008+02:00

Au temps qu'Amour, d'hommes et Dieux vainqueur,
Faisait brûler de sa flamme mon coeur,
En embrasant de sa cruelle rage
Mon sang, mes os, mon esprit et courage,
Encore lors je n'avais la puissance
De lamenter ma peine et ma souffrance ;
Encor Phébus, ami des lauriers verts,
N'avait permis que je fisse des vers.
Mais maintenant que sa fureur divine
Remplit d'ardeur ma hardie poitrine,
Chanter me fait, non les bruyants tonnerres
De Jupiter, ou les cruelles guerres
Dont trouble Mars, quand il veut, l'Univers ;
Il m'a donné la lyre, qui les vers
Soulait chanter de l'amour Lesbienne :
Et à ce coup pleurera de la mienne.
Ô doux archet, adoucis-moi la voix,
Qui pourrait fendre et aigrir quelquefois,
En récitant tant d'ennuis et douleurs,
Tant de dépits, fortunes et malheurs.
Trempe l'ardeur dont jadis mon coeur tendre
Fut, en brûlant, demi réduit en cendre.

...

Louise LABÉ (1524-1566)

Amazing film directed by Henry Hathaway (1960)

2011-06-17T11:16:00.006+02:00

Color of lilac

2011-06-15T11:17:00.006+02:00

Lilacs,
False blue,
White,
Purple,
Color of lilac,
Heart-leaves of lilac all over New England,
Roots of lilac under all the soil of New England,
Lilac in me because I am New England,
Because my roots are in it,
Because my leaves are of it,
Because my flowers are for it,
Because it is my country
And I speak to it of itself
And sing of it with my own voice
Since certainly it is mine.

...

Robert Frost

Hondo Lane, Louis L'Amour

2011-06-13T19:09:00.003+02:00

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people."

Eleanor Roosevelt

2011-06-05T19:46:00.003+02:00

Cuando vuelvas de la siega, jota aragonesa. Victor Miranda

2011-06-01T15:37:00.000+02:00

A mis Padres, ahora y siempre.

Noblesse oblige

2011-05-26T22:50:00.007+02:00

Es irritante la degeneración sufrida en el vocabulario usual por una palabra tan inspiradora como «nobleza». Porque al significar para muchos «nobleza de sangre», hereditaria, se convierte en algo parecido a los derechos comunes, en una calidad estática y pasiva, que se recibe y se transmite como una cosa inerte. Pero el sentido propio, el etymo del vocablo «nobleza» es esencialmente dinámico. Noble significa el «conocido»: se entiende el conocido de todo el mundo, el famoso, que se ha dado a conocer sobresaliendo de la masa anónima. Implica un esfuerzo insólito que motivó la fama. Equivale, pues, noble, a esforzado o excelente. La nobleza o fama del hijo es ya puro beneficio. El hijo es conocido porque su padre logró ser famoso. Es conocido por reflejo, y, en efecto, la nobleza hereditaria tiene un carácter indirecto, es luz espejada, es nobleza lunar como hecha con muertos. Sólo queda en ella de vivo, auténtico, dinámico, la incitación que produce en el descendiente a mantener el nivel de esfuerzo que el antepasado alcanzó. Siempre, aun en este sentido desvirtuado, noblesse oblige. El noble originario se obliga a sí mismo, y al noble hereditario le obliga la herencia. Hay, de todas suertes, cierta contradicción en el traspaso de la nobleza, desde el noble inicial, a sus sucesores. Más lógicos los chinos, invierten el orden de la transmisión, y no es el padre quien ennoblece al hijo, sino el hijo quien, al conseguir la nobleza, la comunica a sus antepasados, destacando con su esfuerzo a su estirpe humilde. Por eso, al conceder los rangos de nobleza, se gradúan por el número de generaciones atrás que quedan prestigiabas, y hay quien sólo hace noble a su padre y quien alarga su fama hasta el quinto o décimo abuelo. Los antepasados viven del hombre actual cuya nobleza es efectiva, actuante; en suma: es; no fue. La «nobleza» no aparece como término formal hasta el Imperio romano, y precisamente para oponerlo a la nobleza hereditaria, ya en decadencia.
Para mí, nobleza es sinónimo de vida esforzada, puesta siempre a superarse a sí misma, a trascender de lo que ya es hacia lo que se propone como deber y exigencia. De esta manera, la vida noble queda contrapuesta a la vida vulgar o inerte, que, estáticamente, se recluye en sí misma, condenada a perpetua inmanencia, como una fuerza exterior no la obligue a salir de sí. De aquí que llamemos masa a este modo de ser hombre, no tanto porque sea multitudinario, cuanto porque es inerte.
Conforme se avanza por la existencia, va uno hartándose de advertir que la mayor parte de los hombres -y de las mujeres- son incapaces de otro esfuerzo que el estrictamente impuesto como reacción a una necesidad externa. Por lo mismo, quedan más aislados y como monumentalizados en nuestra experiencia los poquísimos seres que hemos conocido capaces de un esfuerzo espontáneo y lujoso. Son los hombres selectos, los nobles, los únicos actives, y no sólo reactivos, para quienes vivir es una perpetua tensión, un incesante entrenamiento. Entrenamiento = áskesis. Son los ascetas.

...

Ortega y Gasset, J. , La rebelión de las masas, 1937.

2011-05-24T10:28:00.002+02:00

2011-05-21T16:58:00.002+02:00

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself."
...

Anonymous

2011-05-18T11:48:00.005+02:00

No parlem. No cal parlar.

Si ho parlem, trontollarà

i no convé encendre

la sang.

Guarda't els verbs

trau la baralla

anirem fent

jugant amb la peresa

I beu-te el fons

de pressa

...

E. T. Ribes

"God Has His Arms Around Me" JIDGE (JACK) CARROLL "Forty Guns" BARBRA ST...

2011-05-16T23:36:00.000+02:00

To My dearest aunt Magdalena. She has his arms around me.
Remembering her every second of my life.

2011-05-11T09:43:00.000+02:00

En los límites entre Soria y Burgos se sitúa el Parque natural del Cañón del Río Lobos, un singular espacio sustentado sobre la profundidad del cañón escarpado. En su interior se desarrolla una intensa actividad biológica al amparo de bosques de sabinas y pinos, donde se refugia el último reducto de numerosos animales salvajes.

Indigo Girls - Love of Our Lives, Live @ Charleston Sound Studios

2011-05-09T22:40:00.000+02:00

I open my hands up to see what I've got
My days slip like coins into a slot they are gone
And the shadows lie long
I've been banking on a broken machine,
left unattended like most of my dreams
Rusty components of an unmarked song
We've been staring down the brilliant dream,
the sun burns our eyes
We've been fighting for the love of our lives
All around us things come apart, broken pieces and broken hearts
Fix me, oil me, match me with the next best thing
Person to person, nation to nation, heals the gate of communication
While it's time the time sneaks her weathering
We've been wanting to be held by binding ties
We've been fighting for the love of our lives
And when it breaks down I beg you don't go
I sickle your ship I'm ready to blow
I try to out think you with an army of words
I strategize; I am fighting for the love of my life
Iron, water, oxygen, scotch and soda or any combination starts the reaction
Is there no mastermind of modern day
Who can blueprint a plan to make love stay sturdy and weatherproof, ushering in a new revolution
At the drawing board the hopeful ones still try
How can we help it when we're fighting for the love of our lives

2011-05-08T12:49:00.002+02:00

Sometimes I’d like to saddle the wind and ride to where you are.
We may meet in a valley or on a green hill.
Will I be yours? You know I will.
Dearest one,
My place in the sun
Is by your side I know.
So if I could, I’d saddle the wind.
Some starry night I’d saddle the wind
And straight to your arms I’d go.

...

Song: "Saddle the Wind" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans

Sung by Julie London

2011-05-08T12:08:00.000+02:00

2011-05-01T21:01:00.000+02:00

"Solo lei, gli occhi suoi come stelle sulle strade mi portavano a viaggiare, viaggiavo ed ero vento sconfinavo le pareti, nel silenzio ero notte sul suo seno e sfuggivano le mani senza più paura".

"Lei" In California (Ricordi 1979) - Gianna Nannini.

I'm gonna clear my head, I'm gonna drink the sun

2011-04-27T09:20:00.002+02:00

The saddest sight my eyes can see is that big ball of orange sinking slyly down the trees / Sitting in a broken circle while you rest upon my knee this perfect moment will soon be leaving me / Suzanne calls from Boston the coffee's hot the corn is high /And that same sun that warms your heart will suck the good earth dry / With everything it's opposite enough to keep you crying or keep this old world spinning with a twinkle in its eye /Get out the map get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down /We'll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town / Don't drink the water there seems to be something ailing everyone / I'm gonna clear my head / I'm gonna drink that sun / I'm gonna love you good and strong while our love is good and young /Joni left for South Africa a few years ago and then / Beth took a job all the way over on the West Coast / And me I'm still trying to live half a life on the road / I'm heavier by the year and heavier by the load. / Why do we hurtle ourselves through every inch of time and space / I must say around some corner / I can sense a resting place / With every lesson learned a line upon your beautiful face / We'll amuse ourselves one day with these memories we'll trace (...)

...

Get out the map

Indigo Girls

Sing It Loud!

2011-04-22T14:11:00.002+02:00

"k.d. lang's big, sultry voice harks back to a bygone era, when pop and country singers knew how to linger over a song's melody." - New York Times
"The big, beautiful voice of k.d. lang swoops, purrs and soars through the 10 songs on 'Sing it Loud.'" - Los Angeles Times
"Sing It Loud is a collection that nods to lang's alt-country roots while reinforcing her reputation as a singer of genre-defying dexterity and beauty." - USA Today
"[Sing it Loud is] a culmination, threading some of lang's old fire through her current calm." - New York Daily News
"On Sing it Loud, [she] does what she does best, with songs as soft and delicious as melting ice cream, and heartfelt lyrics that touch on relationship successes and failures." - Sunday Mail
"[k.d.] is back, with a new band and even more breathtaking songs. It's an energising listen - k.d. at her best." - New Idea
"Sing it Loud is filled with exuberance and confidence" - Radio Times

www.kdlang.com

2011-04-20T12:49:00.001+02:00

The Birthplace

Here further up the mountain slope

Than there was every any hope,

My father built, enclosed a spring,

Strung chains of wall round everything,

Subdued the growth of earth to grass,

And brought our various lives to pass.

A dozen girls and boys we were.

The mountain seemed to like the stir,

And made of us a little while-

-With always something in her smile.

Today she wouldn't know our name.

(No girl's, of course, has stayed the same.)

The mountain pushed us off her knees.

And now her lap is full of trees.

...

Robert Frost

Desert ♥ Hearts - Interview with Patricia Charbonneau and Helen Shaver

2011-04-19T23:44:00.000+02:00

Desert Hearts - She's Like The Wind

2011-04-19T23:36:00.000+02:00

I'm going where I can see the sun rise

2011-04-16T11:37:00.008+02:00

Don't be afraid / Close your eyes / Lay it all down / Don't you cry / Can't you see I'm going / Where I can see the sun rise / I've been talking to my angel /And he said that it's alright // I've always had to run / I don't know just why / Desire slowly smoking / Under the midwest sky / There's something waiting out there / That says I've got to try / I've been talking to my angel / And he said that it's alright // This town thinks I'm crazy / They just think I'm strange / Sometimes they want to own me / Sometimes they wish I'd change / But I can feel the thunder Underneath my feet / I sold my soul for freedom / It's lonely but it's sweet / Talking with To My Angel, Melissa Etheridge

I just hang my hat and I watch them graze

2011-04-16T10:59:00.006+02:00

Out on the farm on my worst days

I just hang my hat and I watch them graze

All happy and dumb of what's to come

But I get so bored out on this killing floor

Should we ford the stream

To the other dream Break the bank see what we're worth

Communicate?

Or start all over again

Make this farm our friend?

Put the broken beasts our of their misery

Knowing what we know

Instead of what we hate

Do we hang our hats

And just let it be?

...

Amy Ray

Among the mesas and mountains of New Mexico

2011-03-30T10:15:00.006+02:00

Ultimatum for Man. /Now the frontiers are all closed. /There is no other country we can run away to. /There is no ocean we can cross over. /At last we must turn and live with one another. /We cannot escape any longer. /We cannot continue to choose between good and evil /(the good for ourselves, the evil for neighbors); /We must all bear the equal burden. /At last we who have been running away must turn and face it /There is no room for hate left in the world we must live in. /Now we must learn love. /We can no longer escape it. /We can no longer escape from one another. /Love is no longer a theme for eloquence, or a way of life for a few to choose whose hearts can decide it. /It is the sternest necessity; the unequivocal ultimatum. /There is no other way out; /there is no country we can flee to. /There is no man on earth who must not face this task now. ... Peggy Pond Church (1903 - 1986)