Every single day

He´s carefully and meticulously getting dressed. Getting disguised into what people expect of him, into what he used to be. And then he takes a look and tells his reflection in the mirror: "Just get through with the God damn day". And we know it´s not just that particular day. It´s every single day.

Colin Firth in A single man.

Morning Sun

Edward Hopper, Morning Sun (1952), Columbus Museum of Art

"...The sun beholds her nakedness,
but it cannot hold her in its arms.
It cannot kiss her tightened lips
and force its golden tongue
to free her inner primal scream."

Bill Alberti on this painting.

Leaving Tangier

Leaving Tangier is a novel by moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun. And although I bought the book because it´s a story about illegal immigration, hope, deception, disillusionment, this is the sentence that spoke to me the most:

"...On the trip home they barely spoke, wrapped in a fine fatigue and completely absorbed in their sense of each other."

This is just beautiful to read; and when it happens too.

Pororoca

"Pororoca is a natural phenomenon caused by the meeting of river and sea water... It can uproot trees and alter the course of rivers, but it is also a fragile process resulting from a delicate balance of natural factors. Pororoca is a meeting of counter currents. It forms waves and alters shorelines, creating noise and calm. It drags, mixes, shocks and invades."

There is no music in this choreography by brazilian Lia Rodrigues. Just the sound of bodies colliding, the dancers´ fast breathing, shouts, cries... It´s tender and violent, it´synchronized and fluid, it´s loud, but there are silences that enhance all these feelings and sensations. It was pororoca.

Pino Maniaci

Here´s another very special person. Pino Maniaci, the unlicensed journalist who runs Telejato, an almost family-run TV station near Palermo, that doesn´t give a break to the Mafia. I discovered him by chance one night, watching BBC World. He´s small, very thin, he smokes constantly. He does what he feels he has to do and he doesn´t allow fear to limit his horizon. His, his two children´s and many other people´s, whom he inspires to say: "Siamo tutti Pino Maniaci".

40

"The November issue of Wallpaper gives you 40 fabulous reasons to stay exactly where you are in 10 territories around the globe. Or 360 reasons to pack your bags and head elsewhere."
Source: www.wallpaper.com

I say it´s a beautiful number. And it shoudn´t be blamed for anything. I am "heading elsewhere", of course, as it would be expected of me...

Cidinha Campos

I saw this video today. I was left speechless, in awe of this amazing woman who denounced corruption in brazilian parliament and accused her colleagues for covering it, living with it, enjoying it. Not everybody will understand her words, but everybody will understand her spirit.

Generation Y

In 2008, Yoani Sanchez was, according to Time magazine, one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in the Heroes and Pioneers category. What won her this prestigious title was her blog, Generation Y, an "exercise in cowardice", as she puts it. Yoani defies the cuban regime´s restrictions to freedom of speech and, thanks to many people that collaborate with her, manages to send her message around the world.

Giving her a hand is something that has given me great pleasure in the last two days. Her blog is once again available in greek here.

Rapa Nui said 'no'

Rapa Nui is the polynesian name of Easter Island. One of their moai statues was supposed to travel to Paris and be exhibited in the garden of Tuileries. In exchange the island would get financial support for the preservation of its heritage. The inhabitants organized a referendum and 89% said 'no' to the transfer of the statue. No matter what they could get in exchange. And they´ve just become my heroes.
Source: Le Monde

A dreamy cloud

I woke up with this music in my head. And I´ll go to sleep with it. It makes me think of warm summer evenings.

BACHIANAS BRASILEIRAS, nr.5 (Cantilena)
Music by Heitor Villa-Lobos

Tarde, uma nuvem rósea, lenta e transparente Evening, a rosy, slow and transparent cloud
cruza no espaço sonhadora e bela. over the space dreamy and beautiful.
Surge no infinito a lua docemente The Moon sweetly appears in the horizon,
enfeitando a tarde qual meiga donzela adorning the afternoon like a sweet maiden
que se apressa a linda sonhadoramentea that rushes, the beauty, dreamily
em anseios d'alma para ficar bela. anxious to be beautiful.
Grita o céu, a terra, toda a natureza, The sky, the earth, the whole nature shouts,
cala a passarada aos seus tristes queixumes the birds silence their complaints
e empresta ao mar toda a sua beleza. and lend the sea all their beauty.
Suave a luz da lua desperta agora Softly, the moonlight now awakes
a cruel saudade que ri e que chora. the cruel longing that laughs and cries.
Tarde uma nuvem rósea lenta e transparente Evening, a rosy, slow and transparent cloud
cruza no espaço sonhadora e bela. over the space dreamy and beautiful...

But the soul is free and wandering

Cape North, Norway

Palestine

Moroccan café

Saharan desert

Bolivian village

Easter island, Chile

Perito Moreno, Argentina

Ushuaia, Argentina

In solitary confinement

Edward Hopper, A woman in the sun (1961), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

"Language... has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."
Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

Resurrection

Resurrection (14th century), Chora Monastery, Constantinople

This is the most powerful image of Resurrection for me. Christ in the middle of the scene, his white garment, the strength of his gesture, the determination, the triumph. Over death.

Beautiful walk at the beach today. On Resurrection Day. The hope, the wish and the promise.

A boy´s own story

"...How thrilling to discover that one had depths, how consoling to find them less polluted than the shallows, how encouraging to identify the enemy not as a fissure in the will but as a dead fetus in the specimen jar of the unconscious. My attention was paternally led away from the excruciating present to the happy, healthy future that would be enabled by an analysis of the sick past, as though the priest had nothing to do but study sorry old books and make bright forecasts, the present not worthy of notice."

A boy´s own story, by Edmund White