Burnt Sugar

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2011-07-23T13:33:00.003+02:00

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Compulsive doodling

2011-01-09T16:59:00.003+01:00

And I thought I was a compulsive doodler....

More doodling instructions here

Nature by Numbers

2010-10-03T11:39:00.003+02:00

A movie by Cristóbal Vila inspired on numbers, geometry and nature. Thank you, Hundreth!

Symphony of Science: spreading scientific knowledge and philosophy through musical remixes

2010-08-29T17:56:00.016+02:00

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Paul Sagan

Or, if you are a talented specialist in audio remixing with a passion for science, all you have to do is mix electronic music of your own produce with extracts of scientific television series, to create videos that explain why you must first invent the universe. It might seem like something cool and hype to get the kids all excited, but in reality it is quite profound and moving. I admit my opinion might be biased, as I have grown up watching these sort of series and never gave up the habit. In great measure, I share the enthusiasm and passion of those science luminaries, and they are largely responsible for my continued fascination with science. I cannot possibly imagine how can anyone not be touched and praise by the message these brilliant scientific minds convey.

The project is called Symphony of Science, and is lead by the Washington-based electronic musician John Boswell. The goal of this enterprise, says Boswell, is "to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music". For the making of videos, Boswell uses pitch corrected and auto tuned audio and video samples from television programs featuring scientists and educators, such as Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Richard Dawkins' TED presentation on our "queen" universe and series The Genius Of Charles Darwin, Richard Feynman's 1983 BBC interviews, Stephen Hawking's Universe series, Jane Goddall's TED presentation on What separates us from the apes? (in no particular order, and just to list a few).

Ever since their launch, in December 2009, Boswell has created 6 videos: A Glorious Dawn, (featuring Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking), We Are All Connected (featuring Bill Nye, Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman and Neil deGrasse Tyson); Our Place in the Cosmos (featuring Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Michio Kaku); The Unbroken Thread (featuring Richard Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Carl Sagan), The Poetry of Reality - An Anthem for Science (featuring Michael Shermer, Jacob Bronowski, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Jill Tarter, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Feynman, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, Carolyn Porco, and PZ Myers); and The Case for Mars (featuring Robert Zubrin, Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and Penelope Boston). The videos have attracted over 8 million views online, contributing to the release of the first song, A Glorious Dawn, on a special 7" 45rpm vinyl single.

If I had to choose a favourite - and indeed I have to pick one video only to show here - I would go for for the Poetry of Reality. It was one who made me think that this was why I had studied science in first place. And, and in this strange days I have to live, that speaks volumes.

Palitos la reine? Oh, you mean ladyfingers!

2010-08-10T23:55:00.006+02:00

This is what happens when one tries to recreate an old family recipe and is away from home: the secret ingredient is nowhere to be found.

To cut a long story short, I want to cook an ice cream cake. It is an old family thing. My Mother cannot remember who gave her the recipe, and has been doing this cake for as long as I can remember. Only three ingredients are needed: condensed milk, double cream and palitos la reine.

To get double cream is easy enough. There is plenty of it where I live, available in different brands, from all parts of the Swiss geography, with slightly different compositions. If anything, I would be lost in diversity.

The condensed milk proves to be a bit more of a challenge. Where I come from, condensed milk is sold by the can. A small can of 370g like this, to be precise:

But, where I live, the most usual presentation is a squeezable tube. A big tube of 250g like this, to be precise:

There are probably very good reasons to sell condensed milk by the tube. But, for what I need it, this exotic presentation is not too practical. However, the supplier offers the condensed milk density and the mass, for an accurate conversion. Meaning, one spends a few minutes with careful calculations to find the exact quantities. When cooking, one pours a bit more, just in case. Then, check for sweetness, and add a bit more at random guess (and a bit more, just in case).

Lastly, the most complicated ingredient of all, the palitos la reine. The name roughly translates to “the queen sticks”. They are light and sweet sponge cakes roughly shaped like stick or an elongated eight. In Portugal, they are ubiquitous and you can find them in all patisseries, freshly backed or powdered. Like this:

After looking for a while in the local stores for any sort of cookie that could be used as a replacement, I was about to bake my own palitos. But, during a desperate last search on the internets, I found out that they seemed to be used to do Charlotte Russe (nothing but palitos la reine with an aromatic cream of chocolate and coffee, explains the author of the entry on Wikipedia). Also, they seemed to be used for Tiramisu, as a replacement for savoiardi. A couple of mouse clicks after, I had in front of me the picture of a ladyfinger (or savoiardi) (or palito la reine).

My local bakery still didn’t have them (classical Swiss answer: “we don’t use this here”). An Italian shop assistant a few stores down the road was more than happy to sell them (“for Tiramisu, non e vero?”. Actually, no, but I was not the one to disappoint a nice young man).

Twenty-four hours latter, Mr Burnt Sugar finally tasted the much celebrated ice cream cake:

My Mother would be proud of me...

A grand day out I

2010-07-19T01:02:00.006+02:00

On this occasion only, and without setting a precedent, this weekend I dragged myself out of the urban jungle and ventured into the wilderness. This time, I went to Ebenalp, in Canton Appenzell. Indeed, that same Appenzell that became the last Swiss canton to grant women the vote in 1991.

But, I digress. The plan was to take a look at the Seealpsee, a lake that mysteriously turned blood red last Summer. In fact, scientists found latter that the colour was due to Tovellia sanguinea, an algae so rare that does not even exist on Wikipedia. For the moment, there are still no signs of red blood lake. The only thing I could find on the orange-red spectrum was this lovely orange lichen.

At the top of the Ebenalp, we could see the Bodensee, known elsewhere as Lake Constance. At some point in my life, I used to pass by it everyday on my way to work. Then, I replaced it by Lake Zurich and now, it is distant memory, as blurred as the horizon line in this picture.

d'après

2010-06-22T00:16:00.006+02:00

Ping Pong is a project done between Colombian artists José Antonio Suárez Londoño (J.A.S.L.) and Mateo López (M.L). Every week, they agree on a rule and make a graphic composition about it. They are not allowed to discuss their work, or show each other their pieces. This one was about d'après (from French, it means according to, in the opinion of, or retrieved from).

J.A.S.L and M.L also exchange between themselves a small Moleskine drawing notebook, where they keep an on going graphic discussion. Casas Riegner, their gallery, edited a fac simile of the Libreta No. 1, specially for ArtBasel 41.

All they work was sold before the ArtBasel public viewing started. They are good like this... By the end of Libreta No. 4, their collaboration will be over.

Picture: d'après (2010)
© J.A.S.L and M.L

A PJ state of mind

2010-06-01T21:15:00.002+02:00

I repeat myself today: I am in PJ state of mind. Take life as it comes...

A brief story of Microbiology

2010-05-19T22:22:00.008+02:00

Another Brickfilm release for a RevMen Studios production: A brief story of Microbiology. Why bother going through endless hours of intense tedium when Lego can say it all in less than 10 minutes? It is directionally correct - and it was a global project.

By the way, can anyone please help Mr Leeuwenhoek with his animalcules? He seems to keep on finding them in rather suspicious places...

Star Wars in 2 minutes

2010-05-06T23:31:00.009+02:00

Why bother watching 6 3 long and ~~tedious~~ progressing very slowly Star Wars episodes, when Lego says it all in 2 minutes (and 12 seconds)?

Thank you, Hundreth!

Edit - Ricardo was kind enough to let me know that this is only a brief summary of episodes IV to VI. So, to be factually correct, this video only refers to the second part of the Trilogy (also called the "classic"). In Lego time, the whole series would take an estimated 4 minutes (and 24 seconds).

Not yet in the soundtrack of my life: Natalie Merchant brings back to life old poems

2010-04-13T23:18:00.010+02:00

Natalie Merchant was the voice of 10,000 Maniacs from 1981 until she embarked on a solo career in 1993. For the past five years, she has been researching, writing and recording a collection of songs adapted from the works of classic and contemporary poets.

"This new collection of songs, Leave Your Sleep, is my first studio album since 2003. It is the most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined" she says. Something very special, I would dare to add, and I have only seen the performance she did during last TED 2010. The two-disc set was released today, but TED video was made available a few days ago:

I have updated my Facebook status with my bra colour

2010-01-09T19:49:00.013+01:00

Yesterday, I logged in to Facebook, and found a bit strange that some of my female friends had a colour on their statuses. Just a single colour, like white, red or black. Polka dots was also an increasingly popular status to add to my confusion. Even a male friend dared a proud green, that was much commented throughout the day.

Was it all just another Facebook throw a snowball moment? (or was it an hamburguer?). Was it meme? Did anyone really know what was going on? Bloggers were just as confused as the users and the virtual discussions begun. At some point, the rumor that it was the colour of your first bike start to spread, but the pink with white flowers should have given an hint that this might not be entirely correct. The poor male who said green was apparently referring to its bike, though a latter post on wooly items didn't help him to restaure his pride. At some point, there were as many users asking why the colors as those updating their statuses.

The answer could not be more simple - women have been posting their bra colours. And this was all nothing but an extremely well suceeded vira campaign of uncertain origin, to raise awareness on breast cancer and early detection. Apparently, on Tuesday or Wednesday, a few women received a chain e-mail that sounded like this:

Some fun is going on . . . just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status Haha.

Whit in a few hours, the message start to spread around and thousands of women changed their statuses to their bra colours. Until now, nobody has claimed ownership of this mail and to this moment is still uncertain whom or when started this viral campaign. Or indeed why. In fact most Breast Cancer Associations were cautiously denying ownership of this campain. They are happy with the outcome, but they were still figuring out happened. Even the breast cancer awareness ♥ I updated my Status with my Bra colour ♥ Facebook group was surrpised to have an excess of 20 000 new fans by late Friday afternoon.

So, what colour is your bra?

The Sound Track of My Life IX - Every Breath You Take by The Police and True Colors by Cindy Lauper

2010-01-09T19:03:00.005+01:00

And Joana asks me - don't doubt about the coolness of cucumbers or the freshness of lettuces, but maybe it a bit too cheeky for you to deny you might allegedly hypothetically have been in garage parties?

Indeed, it is correct. Though my Mother was convinced I was at library, I might have allegedly hypothetically probably been in couple of parties or high school events, even. I might have listened to this couple of songs, or in an excess of modernism, the New Romantics. Allegedly hypothetically. But, it was dark and nobody remembers for sure.

The Sound Track of My Life VIII - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by the Crash Test Dummies and More Than Words by The Extreme

2010-01-02T12:08:00.009+01:00

It was a bit far from my intentions to post about these couple of songs, but I sort of owed it to the lady without whom I wouldn’t never have never started the Soundtrack of My Life. The whole thing started a few days ago, when much to much to my dismay, Joana posted on her Facebook a log about Mmm mmm mmm mmm’s by the Crash Test Dummies. A very short comment followed the song: Do you remember this one? This was the slow music by excellency... Oh, so many garage and basement parties… oh, so many first kisses...

Of course we don’t remember this song…. It was something we heard on MTV playlists and generalist radios, and thought it was for fools (and kid sisters). A tune that made critics wonder whether the world in general and the pop music in particular was close to an end. I mean, after the almost poetry of the Beatles songs, what could we make out of such inspirational words as Mmm mmm mmm mmm? Indeed, not much.

I have to add that Joana is a few years younger than myself. Though in general, we like the same music and share favorite bands, sometimes we fall into a generational gap like this one. The Crash Test Dummies’ Mmm mmm mmm mmm single was released in late 1993. By those days, I was day in, day out in Fragil, cool as a cumcumber and fresh as a lettuce. In all my coolness, a song had to be dark and obscure, preferably electronic to be heard. And, the grungier, the better. An order too tall for Mmm mmm mmm mmm and the Crash Test Dummies.

I would be insincere if I said Mmm mmm mmm mmm was not on the Soundtrack of My Life. In fact, I admittedly bought a Crash Test Dummies CD, just because I like its singer voice (True story. I have to say that disc is not bad at all either and has traveled well). I can recognize the song, but I cannot attach it with a story or a moment even. But, ask Joana, and she will tell you a whole different story. She might even say this is a true pop song, with simple and touching lyrics, that was heard by a whole a generation while falling in love for the first time.

Shamelessly, I asked Joana, about another song my sister used to like: More Than Words, by The Extreme “Oh, yes”, she answered. “that was another one!”. And indeed it was another one. My sister also used to sit and watch it on MTV on every possible occasion. Apparently, it was just to check the Portuguese flag on the background.

The Soundtrack of My Life VII - Mahna Mahna by Mahna Mahna and the Snowths

2009-11-14T22:18:00.005+01:00

Sesame Street is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. While it might have been originally designed for pre scholar students, I have to admit that I keep watching it until well past that age. And, as you know, my chronicle incapability to tell left from right is not my fault at all. I missed the show where they explained it, and somehow never catch up with the contents.

One thing leading to the other, it came to my mind that one of the very first albums I ever owned was The Muppet Show (1997). I listened to it until the grooves disappeared, and still keep it together with all my old records. The Mahna Mahna song was strategically placed after a heated row between Miss Piggy and Kermit (Kermit got smacked at the end, if I remember well). Once Mahna Mahna and the Snowths said their goodbyes, Gonzo came up to stage to try eating a rubber tire to the sound of The Flight of the Bumble Bee (What do they know about art?!).

Mahna Mahna was played on the very first show of The Muppet Show in 1977. It was originally titled Mah-Na Mah-Na, and written by composer Piero Umiliani for an Italian documentary about life in Sweden, titled Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden, Heaven and Hell).

Please welcome Mahna Mahna and the Snowths! Whatever that means.....

The Soundtrack of My Life VI -Connected by the Stereo MCs

2009-11-01T15:45:00.003+01:00

When I finished my undergraduate studies in 1992, I got back to Lisbon for a while, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life and looking for the funds that would hopefully get me back to Madrid. In the meanwhile, mainly to avoid starvation, I landed at a substitute teacher position. As all beginnings, life certainly looked and full of decisions and crucial steps. Yet, it was effortless and easy enough to allow me to relax and enjoy myself. Something that was welcomed after all the stress getting my degree finished in a relatively good shape.

And, by those very days, Lisbon was boosting with all new bars and clubs. Every place looked cool and sophisticated and the city was proud to host a club that was considered to be the best one in the world - the Kremlin. Yet, those days most roads would end or start at Fragil.

Fragil, who opened its doors in 1983 in Bairro Alto, was one of the Lisbon's first clubs. In reality,it was more like a bar with small dance floor, and a very mixed crowd. Its two doorwomen were legendary. One eventually became a singer of relative success, and the other one ended up to be a public figure and lead and AIDS support organization. About 10 years ago, Fragil's owners moved the club to a much bigger space close to there river, called LuxFragil. For oner reason or the other, have never been to Lux. If you go to Lisbon, you will still be able to find Fragil, but it is a million years away of what its original splendor and glory. I was there once, but certainly will not go back. Sequels were never good ideas...

I used to be a Fragil's regular. I cannot remember the first time I was allowed in to have a gin and tonic. I vividly remember being was allowed in without a question during my freshman year in University, much to the newbies envy.There are even reports me huffing puffing over people who suddenly remember they were my friends once they saw me jumping over the line. And, once I got back to Lisbon for my gap year, I probably distilled in there a good part of teacher salary. So many happy hours of trendy music and casual (or not so casual) conversation! For whatever reason, no song like Connected by the Stereo MCs makes me travel back to that space.

Stereo MC's - Connected
par ptidavid

Taylor's drawer II - Cheese or font?

2009-10-25T17:38:00.005+01:00

Just found out an ideal time waster for rainy Sunday afternoon: Cheese or font? This game tests your knowledge of fine cheeses and fonts. You are given a name, and you have to decide whether it is a font or a cheese. It is not so easy as it might seem...

Oddly enough, the same website offers a link to Monotask, a simple attention management program. Still in preparation, this program will allow you to lock down internet, and create create productive blocks of time to work on the stuff that is valuable to you.

Of olive oil drips, a naive kid and an almost perfect object

2009-10-10T12:47:00.037+02:00

The world of olive oil bottles is divided in two - the ones that drip and have their outside walls covered with a sticky and oily film, and the beautiful and almost perfect Marquina bottles.

Spanish architect Rafael Marquina knows only too well how badly designed the olive oil bottles can be. When he was a kid, his mother used to ask him to pass her the olive oil (¡pásame el aceite, niño!). Rafael would invariably pick the bottle by its handle, oblivious that it was resting on a dish that protected the table from oily stains. The dish would invariably stick to the bottle, and it would invariably fly until it ended up crashed on the floor much much to the despair of his infuriated mother. Just imagine: she would give me one slap for every dish, and every day she would ask me to pass the olive oil - said recently Rafael Marquina in an interview.

Probably still suffering from an aching cheek, in 1961 Rafael Marquina created a bottle that would forever end with the drip and tray problems. These glass bottles feature a flared neck that prevent prevent dr

ips from running down the outside. The neck acts as funnel that forces the drips inside the bottle, and the ground glass of the opening and stopper keeps them firmly together. The large bottom provides enough stability, avoiding the bottle to tip over. The stopper is easily extractible and has a small ope

ning that allows you to control the quantity of liquid you want to use.

The Marquina bottles suspiciously look like an Erlenmeyer, a glass flask that is widely used in every lab. They share the same large flat base, the conical body, and the cylindrical neck, and they both were designed to solve the similar challenges. But, the inspiration seems to have come from the work the of the Finish designer Tapio Wirkkala for Arabia.

Rafael Marquina claims that these bottles are far from perfect. The grind glass of the opening and stopper have to be hand made, making it unsuitable for industrial production. And this according to the arch

itect, is not in agreement with two of the most important premisses of design: low pr

ice and economy of procedures. Regardless, this

iconic object have become a symbol of Spanish design and possibly its most copied object

Image taken from the book 'Cocos, copias y coincidencias' (Editorial Electa)

The Soundtrack of My Life V -Your love is the place where I come from by The Teenage Fan Club

2009-10-09T14:52:00.008+02:00

Truth to be said, before making its way to my iPod, this song was actually in someone else's soundtrack. I discovered it in Nick Hornby's 31 songs a while back, and rescued it from oblivion a few days ago while dusting my CD collection. Before I forgot it again, here it goes.

It is just great, isn't it?

Partly Cloudy

2009-10-06T19:28:00.005+02:00

Everybody knows that storks deliver babies, but.... where do the storks get their babies from?

Thank you, MJP!

The Soundtrack of My Life IV - Dusk by the The

2009-10-03T17:16:00.010+02:00

I bought Dusk a bit by accident in 1993. I just bumped into it during a shopping spree, without even knowing the The had a new CD, and put it on my cart without too much thought. The CD had been released earlier that year, and I remembered the The as a sort of band that always had been close to my heart and had great songs. After only a couple of hearings, Dusk became one of my favorite CDs ever - one of those that found room in the shelfs of 15 flats in 3 different countries. It is flagged with a VV, initials for the Portuguese Vai e Volta. Meaning, it is outbound and inbound. When I borrow it, I demand to have it back... Needless is to say that it has always found its way back home.

The the was founded in 1979 by Matt Johnson, who has been the only constant member of the band. Matt Johnson takes his time to create his master pieces. In 30 years, the The released 6 albums: Soul Mining (1983), Infected (1986, Mind Bomb (1989), Dusk (1993), Hanky Panky (1995) and their last one NakedSelf (2000). But, all of them were worthwhile the waiting. A seventh album was announced as forthcoming in May 2007 (The End Of The Day). As yet, it is still unreleased.

Choosing just one song from Dusk is not an easy task. It is one of this albums that is more than the sum of its songs. I was not able to find any video produced for my favorite song in Dusk: Bluer than Midnight . But, I can offer Dogs of Lust and an anedoct about the shooting of this video. Matt Johnson, being the perfectionist that he is, was not totally happy with the results of the shooting. There was not enough tension, he argued. At his request, the studio temperature was set to a most unbritish 38oC and the video shot again. Matt Johnson was right - you can almost feel the heat and lust when you watch the video:

the the - Dogs of lust
par nico2oo6

And, a bonus song: Uncertain Smile, played live during the 1993 Reading Festival. This song was released in 1983, as a single of the Soul Mining record. It seems it was just yesterday....

The Soundtrack of my life III- Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

2009-09-27T13:34:00.003+02:00

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye is a 1944 song written by Cole Porter. It became a jazz standard and was recorded by several artists such as Ella Fitzgerald , Dinah Washington, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Carly Simon, Rod Stewart, Robbie Williams, Chet Baker, Eden Brent, and Diana Krall.

It became part of my personal soundtrack a couple of times. The first, around 86, as sung by Mick Hucknall and Simply Red. I recorded it on a long lost cassette next to Kate Bush & Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up. It was only a pretty song when I did it, but after a few months time, it proved to be almost prophetic.

And, for a second time in my life, I put it on my walkman in 1990 as a part of the first project of Red Hot organization, called Blue. The Red Hot + Blue CD was arguable the first AIDS charity, and featured several early 90s artists reinterpreting Cole Porter songs. Annie Lennox did the honors for Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye. No broken hearts to report on this occasion, though.

The soundtrack of my life II - The New Romantics

2009-09-19T12:39:00.005+02:00

Without going into to much detail, I used to be a fan. A huge fan. The New Romantics emerged in the UK music scene in the early eighties, as an alternative to the punk movement. As they would say in Spain, para muestra, un boton (which more or less translates as the proof is in the pudding):

Duran Duran were originally from from Birmingham (UK). They were one of the most successful band of the eighties bands and a leading band in MTV. They group was started off by Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Stephen Duffy, with the latter addition of Roger Taylor, Andy Taylor, and Simon Le Bon. (None of the Taylors are related.) They has never disbanded, but the line-up has changed to several times. They have release 13 albums: Duran Duran (1981), Rio (1982), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), Arena (1984) Notorious (1986), Big Thing (1988), Liberty (1990), Duran Duran (The Wedding Album) (1993), Thank You (1995), Medazzaland (1997), Pop Trash (2000), Astronaut (2004) and Red Carpet Massacre (2007. Duran Duran was also my first concert ever, in the old Pavilhao Dramatico de Cascais.

Save a Prayer is a song from Rio, released as a single in 1983:

Spandau Ballet are a British band who formed in London in the late seventies. They were one of the most successful bands of the eighties. The band split not in very good terms during the in 1990, but announced their reunion in March of 2009, complete with a tour that begins in October of 2009. They have released 5 albums: Journeys to Glory (1981), Diamond (1982), True (1983), Parade (1984), Through the Barricades (1986) and Heart Like a Sky (1989). Their song travelled through time a bit better, but still sound a bit too eighties... One of the best songs of the decade: True, released in 1983:

Classix Noveaux never survived 1984, and probably they were only popular in Portugal (and Poland). They released only 3 records: Night People (1981), La Verite (1982) and Secret (1983). This song is called Never Again, and it was released in 1981:

How to convert a 10 favorite songs CD into a convoluted exercise- The soundtrack of my life I - Golden Brown

2009-09-13T11:46:00.012+02:00

One thing you get used to when living in Zurich is farewell parties. For one reason or the other, people come and go all the time. But, not all farewell parties are born the same... A few months back, a dear friend threw a memorable see you all soon party, that was not exactly the usual Swiss apero. Together with the invitation, there was a request: bring along a CD with your favorite songs. "Only 10?" I replied in shock and horror. "Yes, only 10. Whatever you like, but only 10".

How could I possibly decide on just 10 songs? Should I pull eighties songs to remind myself how happy and gay these times were? Or, chose whatever two songs for decade, for experience sake? Maybe delegate on Itunes the decision and burn a CD with the 10 more played songs? I couldn't help remember another of these exercises, done sometime during the late 90ies. But, we sort of cheated a little, and instead of a 10 favorite songs lists, we ended up with several lists, ranging from songs we like for sentimental reasons, to feel good songs, passing to pub and clubsongs and memories of vacations categories. Much to my dismay, the lists seems have been lost in time and cyberspace... And, anyway, this poetic license would be stretching it too much.

After a few weeks struggling with several ideas and lists, it soon became clear that it was com-ple-te-ly-im-po-ssi-ble to create a 10 favorite songs list. I cowardly showed up at the party with a _gasp_ Best of the 80's compilation and a big smile. It was not the spirit of the thing, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances... At least, it was a directionally correct effort - the compilation had a good part of the soundtrack of my life. Songs like Tears for Fears' Shout, The Cars' Drive or The Boomtown Rats' Tell Why I Don't Like Mondays, that I used to listen on the radio, and had always been there, but never owned.

In a way, I still owe my friend that CD. And in a totally different way, it would be probably better to keep these lists and songs at a safe place, before they are washed away. As the Chinese say, an used pencil lasts longer than a good memory.

In the very early eighties, I used to come back from school and listen to the Radio. TV was not open 24h a day, and even if it were, there would be only RTP1 and RTP2. Not much of a choice, really... But Radio, that was something else. There seemed to be unmissable programs going on, even if there were only an handful of FM stations. I mostly kept it tuned with Radio Comercial, one of the public radio stations (It was named Comercial because it had advertisements and sponsors, as opposed to the other stations, who had no ads at all). After lunch, I would listen to programs like TNT (All at the Top), the more mainstream program, or O Som da Frente (The Sounds of the Front), what we would call indie music, or Rock em Stock (Rock in Stock).

My soundtrack had songs like Foram Cardos, Foram Prosas (It Were Thistles, It Were Proses) by Manuela Moura Guedes, Amor (Love) by Herois do Mar, by Herois do Mar (Heroes of the Sea, that happens to be the opening lines of the Portuguese National Anthem), Planet Earth by Duran Duran, Just Can't Enough by Depeche Mode or Tainted Love by Softcell (in no particular order). Some of these songs traveled through time better than others, I have to add. But, if I had to choose one single song from these days, it would be The Strangler's Golden Brown:

Para mim o mundo bastava ser este cantinho (de calor)*

2009-09-06T15:24:00.006+02:00

Sometimes, because we know someone for so long, we believe we everything about that person. But, the truth is that old friends still have something new to show and might just surprise you on a lazy Sunday morning.

The video is in Portuguese language. It is called filme agua (water film). Music is All I need by AIR.

*To me the world would be enough to be just this little corner (of warmth)

Takashi Murakami - Superflat First Love

2009-09-03T22:09:00.003+02:00

First, Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton united efforts to revamp the old Monogram Canvas pattern. Six years after, they resume their collaboration to create Superflat First Love. This animation was released earlier this year as a download available for Japanese mobile phones only (you could take a look at the trailer, though). The full blown video is now on YouTube:

24h of worldwide commercial flights in less than 2min

2009-08-20T12:37:00.003+02:00

I am a certified Frequent Traveller. At some point in my life, I spent more time in airports and plans than home, and most of my shopping came from free shops all over the world. My office was so close to the airport that I could tell the time of day by looking to the sky - if this is a Singapore Airlines flight followed by a Japan Airlines one, then it must be 13h45.

So, when a friend sent an animation with all scheduled civil flights over a 24h period boiled down to less than 2 min, I was in a bit of a shock. Statistically, every day 93 000 flights are starting from about 9 000 airports. At any given hour of the day, you can find between 8 000 and 13 000 airplanes in the air. A lot of things going on in the sky above us...

Note: This animation is a part of joint project between the Swiss Science Center and the Institute of Applied Information Technology InIT (Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland). It was produced to be shown on the high definition 3D-Globe Orbitarium in Technorama

Caipirinha

2009-08-05T01:25:00.005+02:00

Last year, business trip oblige, I celebrated a big zero birthday in São Paulo (Brazil). The party, that finished a very late hour by all standards, included Swedish chants in a posh Sushi restaurant down town and an undisclosed number of capirinhas. Most night – for the best and the worst – remains in blurred foggy bits and pieces. All I can say is that the headache the day after was excruciating. Between aspirin and aspirin, I promised myself that my next big zero birthday would be celebrated in a bio-sophisticated healthy spa resort, with no short supply of chamomile, peppermint and green tea, spirogyra and açaí concoctions, and (maybe) some oat cookies with chocolate chips and carrot sticks.

I managed to keep away from caipirinha until two days ago.... a dear friend is leaving Zurich, and throw away a memorable See You Soon Party. Swedish chants were omitted from the celebrations, but several bottles of the finest cachaça didn't see the end of the party. As a result of sugar shortage, Malibulinha was created (replace all spirit by Malibu, which is sweet rum). Again, the same piercing headache the morning after, and the same vision health drinks and new age environments.

Caipirinha (pronounced kye-peer-EEN-ya) is a combination of muddled lime, sugar, and cachaça (pronounced ka-SHAH-sa), stirred or mixed and served over ice in a rocks glass. It is considered to be the national drink of Brazil.

For many years, it was a poor people drink, and it is believed that it was first consumed by slaves on the sugar cane plantations in the country's northeast in the mid-1500's. Its name is derived from the word caipira, which means hayseed or hick or rube, followed by the disminutive -inha, which means small or little. Literally, it means little hayseed or little hick or little rube. When referred to the drink, caipirinha is a feminine word.

Caipirinha's base, cachaça, is a clear spirit distilled directly from the juice of sugar cane. Cachaça is also known as aguardente (fire water), pinga (drop), caninha (little cane) or arrebenta-peito (chest smasher). Unlike popular belief, cachaça and rum are not the same thing: while most rum is made from molasses, a by-product of sugar production (from either sugar cane or sugar beets), cachaça is produced directly from cane juice. The fermentation agent is by tradition fubá (maize flour); the distillation unit is a copper pot still. The resulting beverage is either bottled or stored in wood barrels for aging.

Caipirinha is quite easy to do, though a certain attention to detail is required. You start with limes. Before cutting them, roll them on a board with the palm of your hand. That helps to release the juices. Then trim the ends, cut the limes into quarters lengthwise. Put four to six wedges into a heavy-bottomed glass and sprinkle them with a tablespoon of granulated sugar. Superfine sugar is better,because it will dissolves more rapidly. You can also use sirup. Next, comes the crucial step: thoroughly grind the sugar and the lime with a pestle or a muddler to release the oils in the skin of the lime, as well as its juice. How long you should muddle is somehow controversial. You can find all sort of recommendations in the literature. To some, the recommended time is no longer than 15 seconds, to others the ideal time sits between 3 to 5 minutes.

Finally, fill the glass with ice cubes and cachaça. And another controversial topic - shake or stir? In Brazil, the caipirinha is stirred not shaken. The bartender gives the caipirinha a few stirs with a spoon. You receive the caipirinha, stir it a little more, take a sip to taste it, and wait a little before start drinking to allow the sugar to dissolve totally and the flavors to release. But, if you cannot wait a few minutes, then shaking is the optimal way to ensure the mixing and melding of all the ingredients. Finally, put a straw on it and serve. Cuca Brazuca shows how:

Saúde!

The Danish Poet

2009-07-06T22:30:00.015+02:00

The Danish Poet is was written, directed, and animated by Torill Kove and narrated by Liv Ullmann.It has won an Academy Award (2007) and a Genie Award (2007) for best animated short film. It follows a poet called Kaspar, whom his psychiatrist suggests to travel to Norway to meet a famous writer called Sigrid Undset. Little was he to know that the bad weather, an angry dog, a slippery plank, a careless postman, hungry goats and a broken thumb would change his destiny.... Or, how seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all.

Borrowed ideas - Case Studies from the Groat Center for Sleep Disorders and Her Morning Elegance

2009-06-30T19:11:00.009+02:00

Intertextuality as a concept was first introduced by Bulgarian-French philosopher Julia Kristeva in 1966. Kristeva didn't believe a text could be an isolated entity which operates in a self-contained manner. Any text, she said, is the absorption and transformation of another. Meaning, it could be an author borrowing and transforming a prior text, or a reference to one text in doing another. However, intertextuality is too often used to excuse plagiarism, as one of my favorite Spanish writers, Lucia Etxebarria, has done on a couple of occasions. I still like her books, but one does wonder where true creation begins and "inspiration" ends.

Her Morning Elegance was the release single from the album The Opposite Side of the Sea (2009) by Israeli artist Oren Lavie.; the video was directed by Eyal Landesman and Yuval & Merav Nathan:

When I start looking for trivia of Her Morning Elegance video, I was far to imagine that I would bump into yet another intertextuality case. It turns out the makers of Her Morning Elegance had taken one of Mitchell Rose's films as a source for their own video, borrowing more than a couple of ideas from it. Rose, was not to happy about it and bitterly said: It does matter where you “TAKE this from.” Intellectual property — ideas — are all an artist has.

The film is the award winning Case Studies From the Groat Center for Sleeping Disorders (2002), and in Rose's own words is a faux scientific investigation study of ASDICT (Adult Sleep Disorder Induced by Child Trauma), showing glimpses of rare archive footage from the renowned - but fictional - Groat Center for Sleep Disorders.

Unter dem See neben Zurich

2009-06-28T22:19:00.008+02:00

Things you can find under the Zurichsee: bicycles, shopping carts, ski motorcycles, refrigerators, microwawes, vespas, boats, cellphones, office chairs, bar stools, glasses. The water is potable, though, and swimming in the lake is very popular.

In case you lose something, you can always ask the Seepolizei to find it for you. It will cost you, of course (about 150 CHF per hour). But, you will only pay if they find it. Wedding bands and engagement rings are at the top of their requests.

The future is coming - and it is only 498 years away

2009-06-24T14:42:00.006+02:00

In the future almost nothing will be as it is today. It will kind of look like an iPhone, but with an extra piece you can lose sometimes.... At least according to this Sarcastic Gamers parody of Microsoft's future visions series:

And the original Microsoft's vision of 2019:

A lingua portuguesa e muito rica - Palavra do dia III

2009-06-21T17:10:00.008+02:00

Cerca de um terco das pessoas que vivem em Zurique nao sao suicas. Isto sem contar com os secondos, a segunda geracao de emigrantes, que alem de schwiizertueuetsch, falam tambem a lingua dos seus pais. O mais normal na rua e ouvir varios idiomas, desde os mais corriqueiros, como o ingles ou espanhol ate obscuros dialectos africanos. No entanto, os portugueses, apesar de serem uma das maiores comunidades de emigrantes, pensam que ninguem mais os percebe e que podem discutir onde calhe, alto e bom tom, inconfessaveis secredos. Eu tambem fazia o mesmo, ate que me dei conta que nao estou sozinha e que esteja onde esteja, ha sempre grandes probabilidades que o vizinho do lado seja portugues.

De isto nao se aperceberam duas simpaticas senhoras que encontrei no outro dia num tram, a uma hora relativamente sossegada. O tram estava quase vazio, o que convidava a por conversa em dia. Sem um aviso, um sinal sequer que ia presenciar uma revelacao e um momento de solene transcendencia, ouco atras de mim “ O qu’ essa gaija e, e’ma ganda songamonga”. Reconheco a palavra gaija, e os tempos verbais sao correctos. Isto e portugues, e portugues dos bem falados. ”Ai filha, o ela quer e c’o desembelgado do marido lhe faca tudo em casa”, responde-lhe a amiga, tres oitavas mais acima do necessario. Tento camuflar-me com os estofos para poder continuar a ouvir a conversa. “Tu nao t’amofines que ja vais ver c’a tua cunhada ja lhe vai dizer tres coisas”, continua a amiga. Neste momento, tenho que correr para a saida, mais ainda vou a tempo de ouvir “ Troncha, o qu’ ela e’ma troncha! O qu’ela fez foi’ma rebaixolice…. “. Uma vez na rua, aponto as palavras chave: songamonga, desembelgado, amofines, troncha e rebaixolice. Desconheco o significado, mas nao me parece que estas senhoras estejam a falar “dela” em termos elogiosos.

Chego a casa, e abro dicionario. Comeco por procurar songamonga . Songamonga, ou songa, diz-se de uma pessoa que e sonsa e disfarçada. Em definitiva, e uma expressao pejorativa, que tambem se poder aplicar a alguem que e apatico, lerdo, sem iniciativa ou lento. Francamente, nao vejo como e que alguem com estas caracteristicas pode aspirar a que o marido lhe faca tudo em casa.

A segunda palavra da lista e desembelgado. Tal como suponho, este termo nao esta relacionado com retirar a nacionalidade a um cidadao belga. Alias, desembelgado nem sequer existe como palavra. Mas, podemos encontrar embelgado como forma verbal de embelgar. Que tambem nao tem nada que ver com conceder a nacionalidade belga a um cidadao. Embelgar e um regionalismo do Alentejo e das Beiras, que significa dividir um terreno em belgas (pequeno campo cultivado) por meio de regos paralelos, ou dispor o mato roçado em linhas paralelas. Algo me diz que o marido desta senhora seria conhecido na capital como sendo um esgroviado. Ou seja, alguem sem juizo e mal arranjado. Nem sei como e que “ela” esta a espera que “ele” lhe faca tudo em casa, porque claramente deixar estas a tarefas a cargo de um desembelgado parece ser um risco demasiado grande. Mas, “ela” la sabe.

Continuo com amofines, que resulta ser um tempo verbal de amofinar. Ou seja, afligir, arreliar, apoquentar. Sabio conselho a ter em conta, sobretudo se a cunhada vai tomar cartas neste assunto. Nao sei se a cunhada e uma mulher de forte personalidade e verbo rapido, mas acho que para uma songamonga casada com um desembelgado, sao necessarias mais que tres coisas para repor a verdade.

Restam-me troncha e rebaixolice. Troncha, feminino de troncho, diz-se de alguem que foi privado de algum membro ou apêndice, ou mutilado. Informalmente, utiliza-se como sinonimo de torto ou tortuoso. Ou seja, que alem de ser lerda, “ela” e torta. Estas condicoes sao ideais para cometer uma rebaixolice, que e como quem diz em sentido popular, uma sacanagem ou uma baixaria. Suponho que o suficiente para justicar o agravio e a intervencao da cunhada neste tenebroso assunto. Ainda, tentei seguir o desenlace desta historia e apanhei varias vezes o mesmo tram, mas nunca mais me voltei a cruzar com estas senhoras. Uma pena.

Mad World - A Michel Gondry video for a Gary Jules song

2009-06-20T00:38:00.004+02:00

The French director Michel Gondry started his career making musical videos. As an in-demand professional, he worked with everyone from Björk to Massive Attack, including Beck and The Rolling Stones. In 2001, he directed his first film, Human Nature, scripted by Charlie Kaufman. They collaborated again on 2004's Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar . He also made commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and Levi - the latter making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off commercial.

Gary Jules is an American singer-songwriter, best known for his cover of Tears for Fears single Mad World, which he recorded together Michael Andrews for the film Donnie Darko.

In 2004, the two artists got together to produce the promotional video of Mad World. The clip was done in a single-shot. Sitting at the rooftop of a school building in Brooklyn, Jules watches children choreographing simple, child-like pictures on the pavement: a car, a house, a boat:

Taylor's drawer I

2009-06-18T01:26:00.004+02:00

In Spanish language, a cajón de sastre is the drawer where the taylor keep his instruments. In figurative sense, it is the drawer where everything that does not have specific place ends up. It is what we would call in English language an hotchpotch or an hodgepodge - meaning, a confused mixture or a motley assortment of things.

I have several taylor's drawers scattered around my life. Probably the most used is the kitchen one, where film rolls, garlic crushers, egg whiskers and blade sharpeners live happily together. It is also known as the drawer (have you seen the scissors? Oh yes, last time I have seen them, they were in the drawer!).

The most useful taylor's drawer I have is probably the one in the office, which is euphemistically called personal belongings. Last time I emptied it, I found almost everything you need to have in a work environment, but were always afraid to ask: make up, used boarding passes, tooth paste and tooth brushes, a comb, perfumes, stockings, hand cream, business cards, universal plug adaptors, spare pens, pain killers and so many coins of different currency that I could have bought lunch.

Inevitably, my blog also has also a taylor's drawer. It lists a few unclassifiable websites or blogs that for unspeakable reasons I am following. They could be marked as my favorites, but, helas!, that wouldn't honor them as they deserve.

Where I else but in a taylor's drawer could I have saved My milk toof? This blog is authored by Inhae, a California-based artist, who welcomed home a couple of milk tooth. Of, Anna the Red's Bento Factory, a blog about Bento boxes, that includes recipes? Anna's lunch boxes are so pretty that are almost uneatable. Or, Atlas Obscura, a compendium of curious places? Right now, the featured museum on this web site is the Icelandic Phallological Museum, known to have the worlds largest (and only) encyclopedic collection of mammal penises. And, last but no means least, were else could the Lunchbreath photostream be? This a flickster gallery where a Chicago based artist with a caustic sense of humor publishes his cartoons.

Source - some of these sites were found at the Huffington Post, others at Shooting the Cheese

A story of mixed emoticons

2009-06-17T22:35:00.004+02:00

:-)

Thomas Dolby - from I Scare Myself to La Vie en Rose

2009-06-10T18:33:00.009+02:00

Thomas Dolby recorded I scare myself in 1983, as a track of the album Flat Earth (1984). This recording was made on the tube around those days:

In 2001, Dolby was appointed Musical Director of the TED - Ideas Worth Spreading. He performed live La Vie en Rose, together with Rochelle Garnier in 2004:

I look forward to seeing what he will be doing in 2024...

How to be happy in business

2009-06-06T10:55:00.004+02:00

found on Swiss Miss; source and full story on What Consumes me

IKEA - Bringing design to the masses

2009-06-05T17:28:00.011+02:00

The aesthetic form is there for all. And not just for the museum
IKEA Catalog, 1979

In a couple of weeks I might be off to IKEA in Munich. Not to IKEA, the store, but to IKEA, the exibihion at the Pinakothek des Moderne

Democratic design - IKEA is the first ever show about the Swedish company that has shaped the concept of bringing design to the masses like no other. As understood by IKEA officers and designers, democratic design means that having a limited budget should not prevent people from creating a beautiful home, with practical and sensible elements. This groundbreaking concept make them one of the most impressive success stories of the 20th century, and the world's biggest producer of furniture and decorative objects. It is was estimated that one in 10 Europeans are conceived in an IKEA bed.

A perfectly good example of bringing the design to the masses and democracy of design is the PS Jonsberg series of vases, created by Hella Jongerius.

Hella Jongerius is a Dutch designer whose innovative creations are sold by high end design companies, shuch as Droog, Vitra or Donna Karan She heads her own company, JongeriusLab, which designs and produces unique ceramics, textiles, tableware and furniture.

Jongerius is known for her attention to detail, and also the individuality she puts on each piece. Almost all of her objects involve handwork during the production process. “Normally my work is made in small editions, which gets expensive”, she admits (the limited edition of the repeat big pot can cost something like EUR7000; a unlimited production, like the NON temporary vase can be EUR400).

For the Jonsberg vases, Jongerius wanted to integrate her love of handwork with the high volume production requirement IKEA imposes. “I was searching for a way to create something mass-produced while preserving attention to the richness of details,” she says. “I wanted to make a product that is uniform in shape, but that reveals that it must have been made in a traditional workshop because there is no industrial production technique for this particular ceramic process. This was possible because Ikea has manufacturing companies in China, which produce very high-quality handwork, but can also deal with large volumes”.

“The 4 vases all have an identical shape, a familiar archetypal vase form, which for me is a blank sheet of paper on which I can design. Every vase has a pattern that represents a particular part of the world, and each pattern is also assigned its own ceramic technique. It reveals the great diversity of the ceramics world. Moreover, it shows four different characters and traditions that produce completely different vases, despite the fact that the basic form is one and the same”.

I am the proud owner of several of those vases, that were something like CHF50 each (about EUR40):

I love them!

Europride 2009 - There is a little gay in everyone

2009-06-02T21:28:00.011+02:00

Imagine a rainbow flag flying facing the world’s most expensive commercial square meter. Imagine it flying next to a Swiss and a Kanton Zurich flag, overseeing the Old Town and Lake Zurich. I didn’t have to image it – I was there and I have seen it with this two eyes earth will swallow one day.

Since May 2^nd, the City of Zurich is the official GLBT* capital of Europe, hosting the 2009 EuroPride. The event will offer a whole month of pride activities, that will end on June 6 and 7^th, with massive street festival and parade. Over 100 000 visitors are expected.

The theme for this year edition is Celebrating 40 Years with Pride. It commemorates the GLBT* rights movement that formed in 1969 after police raids on New York’s Stonewall bar. I certainly prefer the advertisement slogan - There's A Little Gay In Everyone:

Although Zurich has the reputation of being very open and GLBT* friendly, an homophobic ultra right wing lobby tried to stop it. But, at the end even the Police welcomed the visitors.

A spokesman has commented on the ad saying that it is etwas klischiert, aber es ist ja Werbung: a bit of a cliché, but such is advertising.

*lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people

The front fell off

2009-05-31T21:09:00.005+02:00

On August 19th 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two, dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil.

Senator Collins, a member of the Australian Parliament, appeared on a TV news program to reassure the Australian public.

It is of course better to take other ships - those which front doesn't fall off.

Louis Vuitton and Takashi Murakami - when high street shopping meets manga

2009-05-31T01:17:00.015+02:00

Louis Vuitton is one of the oldest fashion houses in the world, having been founded 1854. You can find what seems like LV purses everywhere you go these days, but chances are, only a small percentage of them are authentic. Ironically, one of their most popular patterns, the signature Monogram Canvas, was created to prevent counterfeiting. The Monogram Canvas was introduced in the market in 1896, and the design was based on the late Victorian era trend of using Japanese and Oriental motifs.

More than one century after, it is still trendy to use Japanese motifs in design. In 2003, the Maison hired Takashi Murakami, a Japanese artist known for his colorful creations and manga influenced work, to re-invent the serious looking Monogram Canvas. Murakami created then the Cherry Blossom pattern, in which smiling cartoon faces in the middle of pink and yellow flowers are strategically placed atop the Monogram Canvas. The limited edition products made with the Cherry Blossom pattern were an hit, and are, still to this date, very popular.

One of the things that Murakami does best manga animation. As a part of the marketing campaign, he created a short film around the LV and the new Cherry Blossom pattern. A girl named Aya is swollen by a panda and guided into a manga world decorated with LV’s patterns and multicolor monograms:

Six years after the original release, Louis Vuitton is now getting ready to launch a new project with Takashi Murakami. The new collection is called Multicolor Spring Pallete and its release earlier this month in Tokyo was built around another short film created by Murakami. The sequel is called Superflat First Love and is only available as a mobile download in Japan. But, we can take a look at the trailer:

A lingua portuguesa e muito rica - Palavra do dia II

2009-05-30T00:59:00.011+02:00

Telefona-me a minha mae, com sinais evidentes de consternacao na voz. “A tua cunhada esta im-pos-si-vel”, solta sem previo aviso. E continua, “estou a comecar a amarinhar pelas paredes”. Quando ouco amarinhar, a muito custo consigo conter a galhofa. Mas, o decoro impoe-se e consigo manter-me seria durante os largos minutos estamos ao telefone. Diga-se a bem da verdade, que a minha cunhada tem assunto para varias horas e que nao deixo de dar uma certa razao a minha Mae.

Mas, ao que iamos. A minha Mae e da Beira Baixa, em concreto, da Cova Beira. Apesar de viver ha muitos anos em Lisboa, nao perdeu um cuidado vocabulario povoado de regionalismos. Estes termos sempre provocavam sem grande hilariedade “O Mae!, mas que palavra e essa?! Essa palavra nao existe….Ganda bacorada” Invariavelmente, eramos remetidos ao dicionario, e invariavelmente acabavamos por ter pedir desculpa pela impertinencia e ouvir a respectivo sermao. A medida que fomos crescendo, aprendemos a nossa custa que quando nos diz “vai la ver ao dicionario se a palavra existe, e depois fala comigo”, o melhor e mesmo deixar cair o tema discretamente.

Mas, amarinhar parece-me ser demasiado extravagante, assim que abro o diccionario, e comeco a minha esperancosa consulta. Uma primeira busca superficial revela-nos que, tal como o proprio nome indica, amarinhar refere-se a tripular, comandar um navio, inscrever-se como marinheiro ou habituar-se ao mar. Nada que se possa aplicar ao tragico caso de perpetuas divergencias entre sogras e noras. No entanto, como ultima alternativa, remete-nos a marinhar. Consulto marinhar, que alem de significar prover um navio de tripulação, governar a manobra de um navio ou saber navegar, significa tambem trepar valendo-se de pés e mãos. Acabo de receber uma licao (outra) de humildade. Amarinhar existe, e como hiperbole ate nem esta mal.

Ja que tenho o diccionario da mao, aproveito para procurar outras palavras que a minha Mae usa e que nao se ouvem dizer a ninguem que seja de Lisboa. Por exemplo, nagalhos - especificamente aos nagalhos do avental. De facto, um nagalho e um atilho ou um cordel. Na Beira e em Trás-os-Montes e tambem um lenço do pescoço. Segunda licao de humildade no mesmo dia…

Outra palavra que provoca grande agitacao e risotadas varias e ganapo. Ganapo e uma palavra que se pode aplicar para descrever algo proprio (os meus ganapos) ou alheio (o ganapo do vizinho), algo que e incomodativo (estes ganapos sao insuportaveis) ou ainda questoes familiares (os ganapos do minha prima). Estou prestes a receber a minha terceira licao de humildade. Um ganapo e um rapaz pequeno, um garoto ou um velhaco. Ou seja, um vulgar catraio.

Ja que estou reduzida a um completo estado de achincalhamento, aproveito para procurar as duas ultimas palavras do dia: estabanado e azougado. Ambas se aplicam a pessoas, de preferencia a ganapos, fillhos e amigos dos fllhos. Sem ir mais longe, muitas vezes me acusaram de ser estabanada. Mesmo sem saber o significado, parece-me que nao era exactamente um elogio. Outra vez sem grande dificuldade, o diccionario oferece o significado. Estabanado diz-se daquele que e estouvado, com pouco juízo, cabeça no ar. Continuo a achar uma injustica.

Bastante mais complexo e o caso de azougado. Uma rapida consulta revela que quando usado como adjectivo, azougado diz-se daquele que nao pode estar quieto, de um vivo, ou de um traquinas. Portanto, usado correctamente – esta rapariga e muito azougada. Mas, quando e usado como verbo significa cobrir ou juntar com azougue (mercurio), amalgamar; em sentido figurativo significa tornar vivo, esperto, ou ainda fazer murcha antes de vir a espiga. Nos Acores, usa-se para descrever o apodrecer de um fruto e na Madeira para descrever a morte de uma animal. Recomendo encarecidamente que em caso de visita as Ilhas, se abstenham de usar regionalismos da Beira para evitar mal entendidos.

Simon Munnery - Can comedy ever be modern art?

2009-05-25T23:03:00.006+02:00

Simon Munnery performs under various guises – Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, The League Against Tedium and as himself. His stand-up routines are sometimes satirical and political and always surreal. He's well-known on the alternative circuit and has appeared both on radio and TV.

I saw him performing a couple of months back, and I haven’t still come to terms with the use of Venn’s diagrams to explain why stand up comedy cannot be modern art:

Never Without a Friend - Fisherman's friends

2009-05-25T22:01:00.013+02:00

An evil and persistent cough made me run to the Kiosk and buy some Fisherman's Friends to clear my throat and get some momentary relief. For some obscure reason, I was under the impression this was a typical Swiss thing (Swiss fishermen? Seriously?). But, an English friend soon would make clear that this strong minted lozenges had been invented in Fleetwood in the Lancashire on the North West Coast of England.

This coastal village was once know for its flourishing fishing industry and their fishermen were used to depart for long fishing expeditions in the North Sea and the Article Circle. They would often suffer from cough, cold and bronchial problems from the prolonged exposition to freezing cold and weather conditions.

One of the first residents of Fleetwood, was an young talented pharmacist by the name of James Lofthouse. Amongst others, he created in 1865 a medicine containing menthol and eucalyptus oil that proved to effective to relieve the fisherman from the cold symptoms. Lofthouse latter transformed this strong liquid into small lozenges, easier to transport and to administer. As the legend says, the fishermen soon began to refer to the lozenges as their friends.

The lozenges exist in their current form relatively unchanged since their creation, though new flavors and varieties were added to the product line. They also still come in paper packets with a retro look and feel.

Fisherman's Friends, anyone?

Oktapodi

2009-05-22T14:12:00.006+02:00

I just found out into this video in one of the newspapers I normally read. Two octopuses fight for their lives with a stubborn restaurant cook in a comical escape through the streets of a small Greek village, which reminded me of Santorini.

It turns out that Oktapodi (2007) had won a number of awards as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film in 2009. A whole achievement, considering it started off as Graduate Student Project from Gobelins L'Ecole de L'Image. It was directed by Julien Bocabeille, François-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier, and Emud Mokhberi; the music was composed by Kenny Wood.

Aren’t them adorable? Or, how they would say in German, so suuuuuuuuuuuuuss.

A lingua portuguesa e muito rica - Palavra do dia I

2009-05-19T17:27:00.009+02:00

Que a lingua portuguesa e muito vasta, nao restava a menor duvida. Sobretudo quando a Teresa, num momento de futil ocio e grande tedio, conjuga o verbo assaralhopar a laia de status do Facebook. A Teresa nao se engana com estas coisas, e vejo-me humildemente obrigada a abrir o diccionario. Assaralhopar, como tal nao existe, mas pode-se encontrar sem grande dificuldade o respectivo adjectivo. Assarapollhado diz-se daquele que atarantado ou atrapalhado. Assarapolhemos, pois.

Ja que tenho o diccionario na mao, comeco a procurar mais provas da vastidao da lingua portuguesa. Rapidamente chego a porraceo, que nao e o que parece. Porraceo diz-se daquele que tem a cor esverdeada dos porros. Convem na confundir este termo com porreiro ou porra-louca.

Tambem descubro assecalhado, que parece rimar com o verbo calhar. No entanto, assecalhado diz-se daquele que e um tanto seco. Portanto, nada que ver com o clima alpino, se bem que os nativos de certas regioes centro-europeias possam servir de exemplo ilustrativo.

Seguindo a mesma tonica, chego a padeirar, que e o relativo ao padeiro, tambem conhecido por paozeiro. Para a proxima vez que alguem perguntar pelo paozeiro, o mais provavel e que esteja a dedicar-se a nobre arte de padeirar.

Antes de fechar o livro, ainda vou a tempo de ver apeganhaço, um termo quase inquietante para descrever uma coisa que se apega ou uma recordacao desagradavel. E para uma recordacao agradavel, sera mais correcto dizer peganhaco ou aapeganhaco?

Summer was last week.

2009-05-18T14:48:00.007+02:00

This photo was taken on Good Friday, halfway down the Uetliberg. It was a such a clear day, we could see all the mountains around Zurich. There were still signs of Winter, but nevertheless it felt like Spring would just be right around the corner. Today, the central heating is on (again), and should we see the mountains, we would see snowed peaks (again). Spring must have been that afternoon and we probably missed Summer because we overslept.