Merry Christmas

“There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.” Robert Frost

Sacco e Vanzetti

Lyrics | Joan Baez - Here’s to You lyrics

Rolling

Il gattopardo

Il gattopardo (1963)

In the 1860s, a dying aristocracy struggles to maintain itself against a harsh Sicilian landscape. The film traces with a slow and deliberate rhythm the waning of the noble home of Fabrizio Corbero, Prince of Salina (the Leopard) and the corresponding rise to eminence of the enormously wealthy ex-peasant Don Calogero Sedara. The prince himself refuses to take active steps to halt the decline of his personal fortunes or to help build a new Sicily but his nephew Tancredi, Prince of Falconeri swims with the tide and assures his own position by marrying Don Calogero's beautiful daughter Angelica. The climatic scene is the sumptuous forty-minute ball, where Tancredi introduces Angelica to society.

Memorable quote:

Tancredi Falconeri: If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us - leopards, lions, jackals and sheep - will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth.

Walk on Water. Hey, Jesus. They lied to you!

It's impossible to walk on water.

Axel Himmelman: [tries to walk on the sea and falls in]
Eyal: [sarcastically] Bravo. You did it.
Axel Himmelman: You don't understand. You can't just come to the Sea of Galilee and start walking on water. If you could, everybody would be doing it. You need to prepare yourself.
Eyal: And how would you do that? Please enlighten me.
Axel Himmelman: Well, you need to completely purify yourself. Your heart needs to be like it's clean from the inside: no negativity, no bad thoughts.
Eyal: And then?
Axel Himmelman: And then you can walk on water. I'm sure of it.

Feelings

Feelings, nothing more than feelings
Trying to forget my feelings of love
Teardrops rolling down on my face
Trying to forget my feelings of love

Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it
I wish I've never met you, girl
You'll never come again
Feeling, woo-o-o feeling
Woo-o-o, feel you again in my arms

Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you
And feelings like I'll never have you again in my heart

Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it
I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again

Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you
And feelings like I'll never have you again in my life

Feelings, woo-o-o feeling it,
woo-o-o, feeling again in my arms
Feelings

ILF AND PETROV

Ilya Ilf Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev , Little Golden America, 1937

...On the fifth day of a journey across the Atlantic Ocean, we saw the gigantic buildings of New York. Before us was America. But when we had been in New York for a week and, as it seemed to us, we began to understand America, we were quite unexpectedly told that New York is not at all America. They told us that New York is a bridge between Europe and America, and that we were still situated on the bridge. Then we went to Washington, being steadfastly convinced that the capital of the United States is indisputably America. We spent a day there, and by evening we managed to fall in love with this purely American city. However, on that very same evening we were told that Washington was under no circumstances America. They told us that this was a town of governmental bureaucrats and that America was something quite different. ..

Perplexed, we traveled to Hartford, a city in the state of Connecticut, where the great American writer Mark Twain spent his mature years. Much to our horror, the local residents told us in unison that Hartford was also not genuine America. They said that the genuine America was the southern states, while others affirmed that it was the western ones. Several didn't say anything but vaguely pointed a finger into space. We then decided to work according to a plan: to drive around the entire country in an automobile, to traverse it from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and to return along a different route, along the Gulf of Mexico, calculating that indeed somewhere we would be sure to find America. We returned to New York, purchased a Ford (transportation in one's own automobile is the least expensive means of travel in the United States), insured it and ourselves, and on a chilly November morning we left New York for America...

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/14/ameriPhoto.php

Music and lyrics

Lyrics | Los Bravos - Black Is Black lyrics

Happy 40th Birthday, Monty Python!

Click here to watch the 20 best sketches in Spanish subtitles.

MILLINERY DISTRICT

By CHARLES REZNIKOFF

The clouds, piled in rows like merchandise,
become dark; lights are lit in the lofts;
the milliners, tacking bright flowers on straw shapes,
say, glancing out of the windows,
it is going to snow;
and soon they hear the snow scratching the panes.

By night it is high on the sills.
The snow fills up the footprints
in the streets, the ruts of wagons and of motor trucks.
Except for the whir of the car
brushing the tracks clear of snow,
the streets are hushed.
At closing time, the girls breathe deeply
the clean air of the streets
sweet after the smell of merchandise.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik (Patel), an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions.

Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?

When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out.

Welcome to the school!

POETRY

it

takes

a lot of

desperation

dissatisfaction

and
disillusion

to

write

a

few

good

poems.

it’s
not

for

everybody

either
to

write

it

or
even
to

read

it.

The Last Night of the Earth Poems, 1992. Charles Bukowski

Tonight, tonight...

Have a nice vacation!

I kissed you good bye at the airport.
I held you so close to me.
I said So here we are now and I cant stop from crying Lilly.
And you said Hey hey hoo, you know this is the way to go
You will forget about me when Im on that plane.
Forget about me when Im on that plane.

Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you tonight

The plane took off and my love went with it.
The chilly wind whipped my both cheeks hard.
And the man next to me said Everything is gonna be alright.
I said Nothing is gonna be alright, but thank you anyway.
And then I saw your face in the airplane window.
I waved my hands and I shouted to you:

Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you tonight

I wore a T-shirt and my worn out hat.
Abandoned as a summer cat.
And as I stood there as a broken hearted I realized you got the car keys still.
So I broke into my own old car.
I fell asleep on the passenger seat.
I dreamed of summer sex with you and you whispered in my ear:

Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you tonight
Why cant you leave me tomorrow instead?
Why cant you leave me tomorrow instead?

And above the clouds she said to her self I cant believe how naive a man can be.
Thats why I love you so and thats why I cant be with you

Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you Tonight tonight tonight tonight
I wanna be with you tonight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8x8PfdRAQ

Taking a decision

Henrietta

Judgment at Nuremberg

Ernst Janning: There was a fever over the land. A fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy, yes, but it was torn by elements within. Above all, there was fear. Fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that - can you understand what Hitler meant to us. Because he said to us: 'Lift your heads! Be proud to be German! There are devils among us. Communists, Liberals, Jews, Gypsies! Once these devils will be destroyed, your misery will be destroyed.' It was the old, old story of the sacrifical lamb. What about those of us who knew better? We who knew the words were lies and worse than lies? Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because we loved our country! What difference does it make if a few political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a passing phase. It is only a stage we are going through. It will be discarded sooner or later. Hitler himself will be discarded... sooner or later. The country is in danger. We will march out of the shadows. We will go forward. Forward is the great password. And history tells how well we succeeded, your honor. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. The very elements of hate and power about Hitler that mesmerized Germany, mesmerized the world! We found ourselves with sudden powerful allies. Things that had been denied to us as a democracy were open to us now. The world said 'go ahead, take it, take it! Take Sudetenland, take the Rhineland - remilitarize it - take all of Austria, take it! And then one day we looked around and found that we were in an even more terrible danger. The ritual began in this courtoom swept over the land like a raging, roaring disease. What was going to be a passing phase had become the way of life. Your honor, I was content to sit silent during this trial. I was content to tend my roses. I was even content to let counsel try to save my name, until I realized that in order to save it, he would have to raise the specter again. You have seen him do it - he has done it here in this courtroom. He has suggested that the Third Reich worked for the benefit of people. He has suggested that we sterilized men for the welfare of the country. He has suggested that perhaps the old Jew did sleep with the sixteen year old girl, after all. Once more it is being done for love of country. It is not easy to tell the truth; but if there is to be any salvation for Germany, we who know our guilt must admit it... whatever the pain and humiliation.

 

just a joke (2)

just a joke (1)

Friends

Today I've just recived this pps from a friend and... here you are, my friends!

David Ippolito, That Guitar Man From Central Parc

Long distance, long time, long past due.
Through the years I've wondered if I'd ever hear from you.
But, the phone rings and here you are.
I haven't felt like this in fifteen years.
How are you? Where are you calling from tonight?
When this moment came somehow I always knew I'd be alright.
And 'though I'm trembling, I'm relieved.
Still, I can't believe that it's been fifteen years.
It's hard to know what I'm feeling as I'm listening to your voice.
Harder, still, knowing what to say.
'Cause it's hard to admit that ever since you made your choice
I've been seeing you in daydreams every single day.

How many? Four children? Mother and a wife.
Me? No, I've stayed single through a rollercoaster life.
So far, there's only been one woman that I'd ask
In fifteen years.

Sure, I've known a few dark hours since the day you had to go
It took time for me to understand
That a love like ours is something so few ever get to know,
And in learning how to let it be maybe I'm a better man.

Don't hang up yet. It's too soon. You have to go.
But, before you do there's one more thing I think you need to know.
The best part of me is in love with you.
It's nothing that we'd ever have to fear.
'Cause, long ago it seemed I'd never have you near.
So, smile for me, and please don't disappear
For another fifteen years.

"That Guitar Man''

You understand it better. Isn't it?

The Crisis

"I do not pretend that things will change if you always do the same. The crisis is the best blessing that can happen to people and countries that the crisis brings progress. Creativity is born of anxiety as the day comes from the dark night. 

It is in the crisis born inventiveness, discoveries and major strategies. Whoever overcomes the crisis is overcome himself without being "overcome." Who gives the crisis its failures and hardships violent and respects its own talent more problems than to solutions. 

The real crisis is the crisis of incompetence. 

The disadvantage of the people and countries is laziness and exits to find solutions. there is no crisis challenges without challenges life is routine, a slow death. No crisis no merit. It emerges in the crisis where the best of each, because wind is not all crisis caress. 

Talk of crisis is to promote and silent in the crisis is to exalt conformism. 

Instead of this hard work. We have a After the only crisis that is threatening the tragedy of not wanting to fight for it. "

Albert Einstein

The New Colossus

(Fotografia arxiu Isalguer Almenara)

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

El nou colós

No com l'altiu gegant grec de bronze,
amb les extremitats a cavall de la terra en senyal de conquesta;
s’alçarà aquí, a les portes del ponent banyades per la mar,
una poderosa dona amb una torxa, la flama de la qual
és llum de presoners, i el seu nom
Mare dels exiliats. Des del far de la seva mà
il·lumina la benvinguda a tot el món; els seus tebis ulls dominen
l’aire del port amb ponts que uneixen les ciutats bessones.
“Guardeu-vos, terres antigues, la vostra pompa llegendària!” plora
amb els llavis en silenci. "Doneu-me els vostres cansats, els vostres pobres,
les vostres turbes amuntegades que anhelen respirar la llibertat,
el rebuig desvalgut de les vostres curulles platges.
Envieu-me aquests, els desvalguts, sacudits per les tempestes,
que al costat de la porta daurada, hi alço la meva flama!”

(Traducció, M. Miró)

CLICK HERE FOR THE MUSIC

Stand by me

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won't be afraid
No I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

So darling, darling stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me

And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me

____________

Do you know this? You can investigate.

I can't stop

"I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts."

Orson Welles

Giving it a slight thought (4)

If you name me, I disappear. What am I?

What's so funny? (2)

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that would write in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 3oo ºC. The russian used a (...).
What?