Viggo, Bitte Verzeih Mir

Gestern hab ich geträumt, dass ich eine Prüfung machen muss und über Elias Canetti gefragt war. Leider konnte ich gar nichts über Elias Canetti erinnern, das Einzige Wort das ich finden konnte war Intellektuelle, aber ich hatte keine weiteren Begriffe hinzufügen, vielleich Jüdische Intellektuelle, füer den Namen. Ich war wirklich deprimiert. Am Morgen wusste ich noch nichts über Elias Canetti (Morgens bin ich normalerweise blank). Dann langsam war Elias Canetti noch mal da.

Ich denke mein Traum bedeutet, dass ich Angst habe alles zu vergessen, das ich studiert habe, weil ich im Büro arbeite. Also, gestern hatte ich das Wort Mitteleuropa hier gescriben, und hatte über A Dangerous Method gedacht, sowie Zurich und Wien und den Tag des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus.

Viggo, Please Forgive Me

Mitteleuropa, Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen, and still I caught myself looking at the watch a couple of times, taking advantage of the light coming from Keira Knightley’s white corsets.

I am so hard to please.

ichi-kew-hachi-yon

This script from the official web site of 1Q84 is clearly mocking me, with its furry tail.

Book 1 and 2 of 1Q84 are out in Italy, but it seems Book 3 won’t be until next October. This is driving me crazy, as the English translation is already out. I normally prefer reading Japanese authors in Italian, because I find the Italian consonant-vowel syllable to suit the Japanese syllable, and therefore rhythm, much better. But this time I will have to make and exception.

As the story goes, Book2 was supposed to close the novel, but then Murakami-san decided that there was more to be told and so he wrote Book 3, and Japanese readers patiently waited one full year to read it. But they didn’t have the English version available basically everywhere for a few dollars on those very annoying e-book readers!

This existence of Book 3 on the international market actually turns the enigmatic ending of Book 2 into a cliffhanger. Now, I love enigmatic endings, and I do hate cliffhangers. For example, I loathed having to explain people for two years that Snape was obviously the good guy, despite having killed Dumbledore.

(This is not a spoiler, isn’t it? Dumbledore has been dead for ages now!)

Happy Year of the Dragon

I’m relieved we’ve entered the year of an animal which is neither extinct, endangered, poached, abused, nor intensively farmed. Nowadays and animal needs to be an imaginary one in order to escape these categories, but anyway, not having to worry about the well-being of this year’s animal according to the Chinese zodiac is very relaxing.

Bluebison

From the luckdragon of Michael Ende’s Neverending Story, through the classical Arthurian creatures, to Haku the spirit of the Kohaku River in Spirited Away, I’ve always been fond of dragons. By coincidence, I also happen to be engaged in a retro online game called Dragon Cave, where you adopt and raise dragons (by clicks and views).

Computer, Begin Auto-Destruct Sequence, Authorization Picard 4-7 Alpha Tango

As a long time trekkie, I’ve witnessed a large number of Enterpise spaceships sinking, being sucked up by quantum singularities, hit by alien technology weapons, or exploding at the end of a dramatic self-destruct sequence. In the Roddenberry world the end of an Enterprise spaceship normally occurs in a theater movie, not in the tv series, and it’s written in order to show the crew’s, and in particular the captain’s, cold blood, boldness and bravery in front of tragedy. First the ship is evacuated, and then the captain and the first officer alone engage the self-destruct sequence, boldly wearing their spandex uniform. They may explode with the ship, but they don’t care. Normally they are saved by the crew, actually, which manages to teleport them safely at the very last second. But that’s because they’re great commanding officers so the crew does everything to save them.

The vast space of the Roddenberry world does include corporations following their own agendas (there’s even an entire alien race devoted to this aspect, the Ferengi), as well as corrupted authorities, and irresponsible individuals who seem to be unaware of basic life saving rules, yet the captain of the Enterprise remains irreproachable, and embodies the appeal, if such a thing exist, of the soldier who knows what needs to be done and does it no matter the personal consequences.

Despite all this, people still die on the Enteprise, in particular those with a red uniform in The Original Series. Ok, it’s to make everything more intense. But it’s invented, the captain and crew are brave and irreproachable, and someone still dies.

Imagine real world.

A Study in… Pink

I went through a Sherlock Holmes phase as a teenager, during my first burst of anglophilia and being the kind of reader who loves the anti-hero, the outsider and INTJ characters in general. So, as you can see, Sherlock Holmes is a personal matter to me.

When BBC  Sherlock 21st century came out last year I was a little annoyed. Not because of the 21 century setting, I’m ok with it, but for the name, Sherlock. How dare you address him by name? Who do you think he is? Your cousin? Moreover, while Martin Freemen could be potentially a perfect Dr. Watson, I considered Benedict Cumberbatch too conventionally handsome to portray Sherlock Holmes. Anyway, the trailer still looked quite cool, so I decided the series was worth a try.

Well, this is a good one. Martin Freemen is actually a perfect Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch is a fine actor and he definitely knows how to wear a coat. Most important, the chemistry is there. Lines and scenes from the literary work may be somewhat cheap, in their 21st century tv version, yet at the same time they strike me as honest and I daresay warm. Again, it’s personal matter to me. Now I’m jealous. Everyone can reach Sherlock Holmes, one Sherlock Holmes at least, without having to go though a teenage literary phase during a burst of anglophilia, provided that he or she is the kind of viewer who loves the anti-hero, the outsider or INTJ characters in general. In fact, I noticed there are already tons of fanficion out there. I’m not surprised at all, I first read my Jenkins nearly twenty years ago, I’m just a little jealous.

And there’s more. A big one. Cumberbatch reminds me of Withnail.
Each time he turns around, coat swirling, it’s Withnail I see, together with Sherlock Holmes, and my teenage years of anglophilia, a personal matter.

source

Metanarrative

So I created a Flavors account to group together my WordPress blog, my Tumblblog, my Twitter timeline, my Flickr page and Anobii shelf.
Tumblr was already twitting automatically, and so was Anobii. On WordPress there’s a twit button, the same on Flickr.

Kipple, you know.
I believe I’ll sit back and have a blueberry juice now.

Ganba!

Jordan Jovtchev is competing today in London at the gymnastics test event, to qualify for his sixth Olympics.

Also the Italian team is trying to qualify for London 2012, having missed the opportunity last November at the Tokyo Worlds.

Game Over

I recently discovered Savon Beldi, which is black soap from Morocco, even better than Aleppo soap, and solid shampoo by Lush (never tried before because I was skeptical). I had a hot stone massage, had Pilates class (with and without machines), went to the doctor, booked blood tests, went to the post office, to the bank, and bought a couple of things at the sales including a pair of vintage jeans. I also had the tires of my car rotated, and booked to have the car serviced. I cooked a lot and filled the refrigerator with leftovers. I distributed all the gifts, including the plush mammoth. I ate all the cookies.

My holidays are coming to an end.

Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit

Se pensiamo ai nostri codici di stesura  elettura dell’immagine, guardando anche all’architettura delle nostre città e agli spazi che viviamo abitualmente, ciaccorgiamo che questi sono segnati molto di più dalla frequentazione e dal rapporto con la pittura piuttosto che dall’immagine ottica. Prendiamo per esempio La città ideale dipinta da Piero della Francesca: è stata un modello per la rappresentazioen  la costruzione di città reali, come piena e per certi versi Sabbioneta.

Luigi Ghirri, Lezioni di fotografia

Chiunque avrà avuto modo di osservare quanto più facile sia cogliere un quadro, o più ancora una scultura o addirittura un’architetura, mediante la fotografia ce non nella reatà. La tentazione di attribuire la ragione di questo fenomeno semplicemente a una decadenza della sensibilità artistica, a una decadenza dei nostri contemporani, è troppo ovvia. Una simile interpretazione è contestata dalla constatazione di quanto, pressapoco contemporanamente all’elaborazione delle tecniche riproduttive, si sia trasformata l’appercezione delle grandi opere. Esse non possono più venir considerate realizzazioni di singoli; sono diventate formazioni collettive, e ciò inmisura tale che la possibilità di assimilarle è addirittura legata alla possibilità di ridurne le dimensioni. In ultima analisi, i metodi di riproduzione meccanica costituiscono una tecnica della riduzione e sono d’aiuto all’uomo nel suo tentativo di dominare opere di cui, senza di essa, non sarebbe più possibile fruire.

Walter Benjamin, “Piccola storia della fotografia“, in L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica

Le domande che l’umanità pone alla natura sono tra l’altro condizionate dallo stadio a cui è giunta la produzione. E’ questo il punto in cui fallisce il positivismo. Nello sviluppo della tecnica esso riconosce i progressi della scienza naturale, ma non i regressi della società.

Walter Benjamin, “Eduard Fuchs, il collezionista e lo storico“, in L’opera d’arte nell’epoca della sua riproducibilità tecnica