10 filmes vistos em 2008

1. Aquele Querido Mês de Agosto
2. O Assassinato de Jesse James pelo cobarde Robert Ford
3. I’m Not There
4. Lust, Caution
5. Wall-E
6. O segredo de um cous cous
7. 4 meses, 3 semanas e 2 dias
8. O meu irmão é filho único
9. A Ronda da Noite
10. Austrália

Mais ao menos por ordem e sem tempo para ir colocando links e comentários... Observo só a diversidade de estilos, de temas e, sobretudo, o quanto eu me perco por grandes histórias contadas de dentro. Ah, e como sabe bem incluir um filme português!

O orgulho no bolo da prima

Servido aqui...

Natal

Eu compro os presentes com gosto.
Cozinho e como com prazer.
Faço decorações e mando boas festas a muita gente.
Recebo presentes lindos (e outros menos).
Ainda assim, de vez em quando, penso que não me devo ter portado bem este ano...

É ou não é a melhor escolha de encarnação de todos os tempos?

Homem, rico, liberal, tolerante, cientista, resistente ao enjôo, século XIX.

Inveja de Darwin

The brilliancy of the Scenery throws one into a delirium of delight and a Beetle hunter is not likely soon to awaken from it, when whichever way he turns fresh treasures meet his eye. At Rio de Janeiro three months passed away like so many weeks— I made a most delightful excursion during this time of 150 miles into the country.— I staid at an estate which is the last of the cleared ground, behind is one vast impenetrable forest. It is almost impossible to imagine the quietude of such a life— Not a human being within some miles interrupts the solitude.— To seat oneself amidst the gloom of such a forest on a decaying trunk, and then think of home, is a pleasure worth taking some trouble for (...)

Tudo e mais alguma coisa aqui.

Inveja de Humboldt

"Expedition to South America

The conviction had grown in Humboldt that his real aim in life was scientific exploration, and in 1797 he resigned from his post to acquire with great single-mindedness a thorough knowledge of the systems of geodetic, meteorological, and geomagnetic measurements. The political upheavals caused by the Napoleonic Wars prevented the realization of several scientific expeditions in which Humboldt had been given an opportunity to participate. At last, dispirited by his disappointments but refusing to be deterred from his purpose, he obtained permission from the Spanish government to visit the Spanish colonies in Central and South America. These colonies were then accessible only to Spanish officials and the Roman Catholic mission. Completely shut off from the outside world, they offered enormous possibilities to a scientific explorer. Humboldt’s social standing assured him of access to official circles, and in the Spanish prime minister Mariano de Urquijo he found an enlightened man who supported his application to the king for a royal permit. In the summer of 1799 he set sail from Marseille accompanied by the French botanist Aimé Bonpland, whom he had met in Paris, then the liveliest scientific centre in Europe. The estate he had inherited at the death of his mother enabled Humboldt to finance the expedition entirely out of his own pocket. Humboldt and Bonpland spent five years, from 1799 to 1804, in Central and South America, covering more than 6,000 miles (9,650 kilometres) on foot, on horseback, and in canoes. It was a life of great physical exertion and serious deprivation.

Starting from Caracas, they travelled south through grasslands and scrublands until they reached the banks of the Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco River. They continued their journey on the river by canoe as far as the Orinoco. Following its course and that of the Casiquiare, they proved that the Casiquiare River formed a connection between the vast river systems of the Amazon and the Orinoco. For three months Humboldt and Bonpland moved through dense tropical forests, tormented by clouds of mosquitoes and stifled by the humid heat. Their provisions were soon destroyed by insects and rain; the lack of food finally drove them to subsist on ground-up wild cacao beans and river water. Yet both travellers, buoyed up by the excitement provided by the new and overwhelming impressions, remained healthy and in the best of spirits until their return to civilization, when they succumbed to a severe bout of fever.

After a short stay in Cuba, Humboldt and Bonpland returned to South America for an extensive exploration of the Andes. From Bogotá to Trujillo, Peru, they wandered over the Andean Highlands—following a route now traversed by the Pan-American Highway, in their time a series of steep, rocky, and often very narrow paths. They climbed a number of peaks, including all the volcanoes in the surroundings of Quito, Ecuador; Humboldt’s ascent of Chimborazo (20,702 feet [6,310 metres]) to a height of 19,286 feet (5,878 metres), but short of the summit, remained a world mountain-climbing record for nearly 30 years. All these achievements were carried out without the help of modern mountaineering equipment, without ropes, crampons, or oxygen supplies; hence, Humboldt and Bonpland suffered badly from mountain sickness. But Humboldt turned his discomfort to advantage: he became the first person to ascribe mountain sickness to lack of oxygen in the rarefied air of great heights. He also studied the oceanic current off the west coast of South America that was originally named after him but is now known as the Peru Current. When the pair arrived, worn and footsore, in Quito, Humboldt, the experienced mountaineer and indefatigable collector of scientific data, had no difficulty in assuming the role of courtier and man of the world when he was received by the Viceroy and the leaders of Spanish society.

In the spring of 1803, the two travellers sailed from Guayaquil to Acapulco, Mex., where they spent the last year of their expedition in a close study of this most developed and highly civilized part of the Spanish colonies. After a short stay in the United States, where Humboldt was received by President Jefferson, they sailed for France."

Mais detalhes e mais viagens aqui.

Inveja de Tocqueville

"Travels: May 9, 1831 - February 20, 1832

April 2, 1831
Tocqueville and Beaumont leave Le Havre, France on the ship Havre

May 9
Arrive in Newport after 37 days at sea

May 10
Leave Newport for New York City

May 11
Arrive in New York; stay at a boarding house located at 66 Broadway

May 29
Travel to Ossining, NY to visit Sing Sing Prison

June 7
Take a steamboat back to New York City, stopping in "Greenbugh on the Hudson" along the way

June 30
Leave New York City by sloop for Yonkers

July 1
Leave Yonkers by steamboat; stop in Peekskill long enough to go hike "Anthony's Nose"; board the steamboat North America headed for Albany

July 4
Attend Independence Day parade and then leave Albany late at night by stage

July 5
Arrive in Utica

July 7
Leave Syracuse on horseback; stay near Fort Brewerton

July 8
Leave Fort Brewerton; explore Frenchman's Island

July 9
Travel to Auburn; visit the Auburn prison

July 12
Visit NY Gov. Enos Throop at his farmhouse

July 16
Travel by horseback to Canandaigua

July 17
Visit Ontario County's almshouse

July 18
Travel from Canandaigua to Bufflalo, stopping in Batavia along the way

July 19
Leave Buffalo for Detroit via steamboat Ohio

July 20
Stop (briefly) at Erie, PA

July 21
Stop (briefly) at Cleveland

July 22
Arrive in Detroit and leave shortly thereafter on horseback for Pontiac

July 24
Leave Pontiac enroute to Saginaw

July 26
Saginaw

July 28
Leave Saginaw

July 29
Arrive in Pontiac

July 31
Arrive in Detroit

August 1
Leave Detroit on steamboat Superior for Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac and Green Bay

August 2
Stop at Fort Gratiot on Lake Huron; stay anchored for two days due to inclement weather

August 4
Leave Fort Gratiot

August 5
Arrive at Saulte St. Marie

August 6
Take a canoe to Pointe aux Pins at the beginning of Lake Huron

August 7
Arrive in Mackinac; leave late at night for Green Bay

August 9
Arrive in Green Bay

August 10
Leave Green Bay and return to Michilimackinac

August 13
Leave Mackinac

August 14
Arrive in Detroit on the Superior

August 17
Arrive in Buffalo by steamboat

August 18 & 19
Visit Niagara Falls

August 20
Travel on Lake Ontario aboard another steamboat, the Great Britain, enroute to Montreal

August 23
Arrive in Montreal

August 24
Leave Montreal on the steamboat John Molson enroute to Quebec

August 27
Visit the village of Lorette, near Quebec

August 29
Visit the village of Beaufort, near Quebec

August 31
Leave Quebec aboard the steamboat Richelieu for Montreal

September 2
Leave Montreal by steamboat Voyageur for La Prairie; travel by carriage to St. Jean; then board the steamboat Phoenix for travel on Lake Champlain

September 4
Arrive in Whitehall

September 4-5
Travel by stage to Albany

September 7
Leave Albany for Boston/Stop in Stockbridge, MA

September 9
Arrive in Boston for a three-week stay; stay at the Marlboro Hotel on Washington Street before moving to the luxury Tremont Hotel

October 3
Leave Boston by stagecoach for Hartford, CT

October 5
Visit the New Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield

October 8
Leave Hartford via steamboat for New York

October 11
Leave New York City by steamboat and stage for Philadelphia

October 12
Arrive in Philadelphia for a two-week stay; during this time, Tocqueville made eight visits to Eastern State Penitentiary in Cherry Hill where he interviewed each of the prisoners individually

October 28
Travel to Baltimore from Philadelphia

November 6
Return to Philadelphia

November 22
Travel by stagecoach to Pittsburgh - a 72-hour journey over the Allegheny Mountain range

November 25
Leave Pittsburgh on the steamboat Fourth of July enroute for Cincinnati

November 26
During the night, the Fourth of July hits a rock on the Burlington Bar near Wheeling, VA (now West Virginia)

November 27
The boat is rescued by another steamboat, the William Parsons

December 1
Arrive in Cincinnati

December 4
Leave Cincinnati via steamboat

December 5
The Ohio River freezes, forcing the passengers to disembark in Westport, KY and walk 22 miles to Louisville

December 7
Leave for Nashville, TN, a two-day journey

December 11
Leave Nashville in an open, one-horse carriage for Memphis

December 12
The carriage breaks down and can barely be fixed. Tocqueville is very ill, so the two stay in Sandy Bridge

December 15
Leave Sandy Bridge via stagecoach for Memphis

December 17
Arrive in Memphis

December 25
Travel down the Mississippi on the steamboatLouisville

December 26-27
Steamboat is stranded for about two days on a sandbar

January 1, 1832
Arrive in New Orleans

January 3
Travel on a steamboat enroute to Mobile, AL; then spend 12 days traveling by way of various stagecoaches across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina to reach Norfolk, VA

January 15
Arrive in Norfolk, VA

January 16
Leave Norfolk for Washington, DC traveling by steamboat up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River

January 17
Arrive in Washington

January 19
Meet with President Andrew Jackson

January 20
Visit to the U.S. Capitol - both the Senate and the House of Representatives

February 3
Leave DC via stage for Philadelphia via stage

February 5
Leave Philadelphia for New York City

February 6
Arrive in New York City

February 20
Leave New York City for Havre, France, aboard the Havre"

Muito mais informação aqui.

Ao sol

Eu tenho muito gosto na minha varanda. É comprida, mas mínima em largura, o suficiente apenas para estacionar os fumadores alinhadamente ao longo do muro. Jamais a converteria numa marquise, não só por esse função, mas sobretudo pelas 2 horas de sol directo que no Inverno salvam a sala e os quartos da sombra gelada deste alto de Lisboa. Mais uns minutos e ele vai desaparecer atrás do prédio dos vizinhos velhotes que aparecem só de manhã (e em robe) na varanda deles.

Regressar sempre ao MNAA

Não são precisos pretextos para uma visita, mas este é dos grandes.

Anteceder com um excelente filme.

Mais ou menos isto mas ainda melhor

Primeira música do mini-concerto de apresentação de hoje, com uma versão ainda mais intensa, a seguir para outras pérolas, um muito obrigada impecavelmente pronunciado, totalmente sorridente e linda.

Os Filhos da Meia Noite

Mau hábito de me deitar tarde e ainda assim pegar num livro. Quatro páginas chegaram para perceber o que é o Booker dos Bookers. Agora compreendo que todos os premiados que li a seguir me tenham parecido... parecidos. Todos são aproximações a isto, a estas palavras que parecem ter própria. O volume está na mesa de cabeceira e olho para ele agora com um certo receio. Este vai absorver-me, penso. Faço-me difícil, decido esperar até poder mergulhar nele como deve ser (é muito meu este adiamento, este cultivar da espera, in antecipation...). Pergunto-me como nos vamos dar, eu e o protagonista. É que, além de tudo, há a coisa de ter nascido a 15 de Agosto...

Inelimináveis

aquelas bolinhas de esferovite que recheiam assentos e almofadas no chão
os brilhantes agarrados às decorações de Natal nas paredes
as areias e pedrinhas dos dias de chuva nas dobras das calças
o cotão de lã nos bolsos dos casacos
o perfume nos relógios de pele
a cicatriz da bcg no braço
a areia no saco de praia

Rap do peer review

Won't let it kill ma' self-estime... yeah!

Red Hot e nós

Li hoje no Sound+Vision que o álbum Red Hot + Blue tem 18 anos e espanto-me com a idade, mas também com a criatividade e vitalidade do projecto. Sou a orgulhosa proprietária de três dos albuns e um deles (Red Hot + Rio) é meus preferidos de todos os tempos. Difícil feito para uma colectânea, mas quando de uma só vez se descobre David Byrne, Cesária Évora e Stereolab, quando se torna banda sonora de recordações românticas, quando se associa aos primeiros tempos de faculdade... não vale a pena resistir.
E é bom serviço a uma boa causa.

Quanto ao melhor vídeo que se arranja...