french kissin' (beta)

Jornalista - Qual é a qualidade que mais aprecia numa mulher?
Serge Gainsbourg - A assiduidade.

se te fossem roubando, sem que percebas porquê, as razões para continuar. vais ficando com a música. forsaken, lost and forgotten



Richard Hawley - Roll River Roll (2007)

Fico sempre espantado quando, perante um desaire, um falhanço, uma filhadaputice, alguém insiste em dizer que, se voltasse atrás, voltaria a fazer tudo igual.
Imagino-me a brincar com a minha vida. Rato numa mão, teclado a jeito, editando a fita do tempo. Colando momentos, saltando pesadelos, repetindo sensações, apagando erros. Brincando aos deuses, armado de um software dos diabos. Uma das coisas tramadas da vida é não podermos experimentar antes de viver. Não me lixem, não há qualquer poesia nessa impossibilidade.

Mas, afinal, onde é que isso fica?

- Andas mt ausente no sk.
- Cansa-me a autocontenção. Desisto, mas dp tenho saudades.
- Tb ando um bocado cansada da bloga. A superficialidade, a idiotice, a indignação por obrigação tb cansam.
- É. Mas acabo sp por retomar. Axo k é um vício.

- Então, pá, o que se passa...?
- Olha... acho que já não se faz jornalismo em Portugal.

O Times [Londres] publicou há dias um Philip Roth For Dummies, a propósito de Exit Ghost. E há uma data de links para os not so dummy. Enjoy...

Contraceptivos:
Só um homem em sete mulheres usa protecção.

Meia Hora, 25 Set 07

Everybody knows this is nowhere.

Congratulations, Traveling Wilburys

Each man kills the thing he loves.

do rugby era mais precisamente o quê?
Acontece-me agora com uma doce frequência perder o fio à meada.

A minha definição de jornalismo preferida foi publicada em Setembro de 1843, no primeiro número da Economist: published to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.
Entretanto, a Economist, após umas edições experimentais, decidiu passar a publicar regularmente uma revista de luxo (a publicidade, a publicidade...), a que decidiu chamar de Intelligent Life. A divisa adoptada - knowledge is pleasure - é um perfeito símbolo da irrelevância dos dias que vivemos.

Dez da manhã de sábado num quiosque do Rossio. O monte de El Pais (uns 30...) suplanta largamente os dos congéneres portugueses. Assim de repente, consigo encontrar 3 ou 4 explicações para o caso...

O que fazes dentro de casa é contigo, o que fazes fora é com a Time Out.
Slogan de lançamento da Time Out Lisboa

Desço a escada do Lux com dois exemplares da Time Out no bolso. Penso quase em voz alta em deixar o teu na mesa da sala para que o encontres de manhã. Imagina...

O que não podes escrever. Tudo. Quase.

A Vanity Fair de Outubro faz capa com a Nicole Kidman. No site, mostra outras 23 novas e velhas fotos. Esta é de Patrick Demarchelier.

Everything you ever wanted to know about pop (but were too old to ask)

[pirateado de The Independent, 06.09.07]

Were you baffled by press descriptions of the Mercury-winning Klaxons? Don't you know your Nu-rave from your Grindcore? You need Jonathan Brown's guide to music's proliferating genres.

Acid-rave-sci-fi punk-funk: A brain-spinning sub-sub-genre much mentioned in yesterday's papers in connection with British pop's latest poster boys, the Klaxons, this was specially devised by New Musical Express to describe the Mercury-winners. (See also Nu-rave, which used to be considered an adequate pigeonhole for them.)
Aggrotech: The Goth revival has breathed new life into this depressing techno-inspired early Nineties German techno outcrop. Modern practitioners, such as Norway's Combichrist (right), have inherited the mantle of pioneers such as Kevorkian Death Cycle.
Black Ambient: Nothing to do with mid-Eighties crooner Lionel Ritchie but rather a sinister anti-commercial variant of Black Metal overlaid with synthesisers. Middlesbrough-based Axis of Perdition draw on the inspiration of H P Lovecraft to explore such uplifting themes as mental illness and urban squalor.
Chemical Breaks: Epitomised by Fatboy Slim, factotum of goodtime geezerdom, who made the effortless transition from puny northern popster to spin some of the fattest tunes in clubland –via the advert-friendly Freak Power. His singalong anthems continue to make him a presence on the dance floor.
Darkwave: The early 1980s saw a crop of synth-based bands with floppy fringes and moody lyrics pick up where punk left off: think Depeche Mode and Tubeway Army (before Gary Numan went all Noel Edmonds). Today's exponents include Bangladeshi-born Shikee's Android Lust and tunesome duo Roger Fracé and Summer Bowman's Machine in the Garden. Got it?
Electroclash: Developed out of the hedonistic gay nights of the early millennium. High concept, some might say pretentious, adherents wax lyrical about the style's "hyper-sexual, post-feminist, post 9/11 stance". Opponents (and there are many) call it retro dance music for transvestites. The genre's biggest acts include Los Angeles's controversially named Dirty Sanchez.
Emo: Aficionados of emo now consider bands such as Dashboard Confessional and the now defunct Further Seems Forever to be part of the third generation of the so-called emotional music movement – a genre which first took root in Washington DC in the early Eighties. Since then we've had – naturally – emocore and its mid-period offshoot, screamo.
Folk Metal, Folktronica, etc: There was a time when a man with a guitar, a beard and a chunky jumper was all you needed to know about folk. Today there is Folk Metal, Freak Folk, Folktronica and even plain old Folk. Amid these sub-delights, south London's neo-medievalists Circulus and Southend balladeer Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly are some of the more colourful characters in the new folk revival.
Grindcore: see Hardcore.
Gypsy Punk: If Garage and Goth have become too mainstream (and Grindcore a bit 2005), why not try a dose of Gypsy Punk? Leading exponents are Gogol Bordello (formed by Eugene Hutz, a survivor of the Chernobyl disaster): the band take traditional Ukrainian string sounds and plug them into the mains.
Hardbag: Loved-up clubbers who liked to put their hands in the air as part of the life-affirming Handbag scene of the early 1990s were forced to step up the pace when Rollo and Sister Bliss blended the genre with Hardcore (see below) to bring a new grittiness to the dancefloor
Hardcore: Comes in a variety of densities – everything from Melodic to Happy to Christian. Also lends its name to practically every other style – punk, techno, hip-hop, house, bop even jazz – as well as spawning a bastard litter of suffix-influenced styles from Speedcore to Horrorcore. Grindcore, a genre invented in a true Spinal Tap moment by the drummer in Birmingham's very own Napalm Death, has itself split into a dizzying maze of sub divisions, among them Crustgrind, Cybergrind, Deathgrind, Noisegrind and even Pornogrind.
Indie: This benevolent umbrella covers a vast expanse of musical terrain – anything from the Smiths to Dirty Pretty Things. Originally referred to groups signed on minor labels but has become a discrete musical genre associated with a penchant for thrift shop clothes and an obsession with guitars. All too often, leading exponents horrify the idealists by hitching their stars to the majors as soon as possible.
Janglepop: More than 40 years after the Byrds sought to bridge the gap between the Beatles and Bob Dylan, the jangly guitar sound they spawned continues to influence bands – from the early REM to student stalwarts 10,000 Maniacs.
Krautrock: Who said the Germans have no sense of humour? What started as a term of abuse among mid-Seventies, mid-Atlantic rockers, has become a postmodern compliment in a country once thought of as the land that pop music forgot. Krautrock bands from the 1970s such as Tangerine Dream, Faust and Can gave way to Dusseldorf's mighty Kraftwerk who influenced a generation of British groups from post punk to dance.
Lovers' Rock: A term originally used to describe British homegrown reggae, it took its name from Dennis Lascelles Harris's New Cross record label. A lighter, more tuneful, less angry, apolitical sound than that bubbling up in other parts of the country such as Steel Pulse's Handsworth, the genre spawned a number of major acts including Aswad and Maxi Priest.
Mathrock: Mathrock fans are still celebrating the news that New York indie rock band Chavez had reformed. They are inheritors of a musical tradition that can trace its origins back to some of the more outlandish experiments with the 4/4 timing carried out by Captain Beefheart aka Don Van Vliet.
Musique Concrete: Invented by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer in the late 1940s, Frank Zappa flirted with this technological sound during one of his more inaccessible periods – witness The Apostolic Blurch Injector. The Beatles, buoyed by the success of the Concrete loop on "Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite", experimented with it on their most unlistenable track, "Revolution 9". It is enjoying an unlikely revival through the work of British DJ Squarepusher better known as Tom Jenkinson.
Nu-rave, Nu-prog, Nu-skool, etc: The addition of the word New – or more trendily Nu – has done for music exactly what it did for that tired old brand the British Labour Party. Klaxons, who scooped last night's Nationwide Mercury prize, are at the forefront of Nu-rave (the non-Nu version having gone out of fashion around the same time as Smilee T-shirts and Vicks Vaporub were a must have addition to a Saturday night out). Then there are Nu-prog, Nu-disco, Nu-folk and Nu-funk. Not to mention Nu-skool (once known as Old-skool), Nu-jazz, Nu Metal and Nu-nu-rave.
Obscuro: Music without a clear definitive genre. The United States of America and classic singer Lee Hazlewood are among the artists falling into this abyss.
Outsider Music: Places the Daniel Johnston's and sadly deceased Syd Barrett in a Camus-esque musical zone. Put it another way – it's music for loners.
Porn Rock: Find it on the top shelf of your local HMV (not), it tries to bridge the gap between sexuality and music. Bands use their lyrics, the way they behave onstage and their choice of (or lack of) dress to get their point across. Leading practitioners the Genitorturers have built something of an obsessive live following in their native US, Japan and Europe.
Power Pop: For something a little more sedate, Power Pop evokes an more genteel era when bands could get away with miming to a soundtrack on Top of the Pops. Brighton girl group the Pipettes keep the genre fresh with their singing-into-a-hairbrush harmonies and big choruses.
Queercore: Forget disco, boystown or any of those other euphemisms from the dark old closet days of the 1970s. Queercore preaches a homosexual punk doctrine of misunderstood sexual and gender identity. It exists outside the mainstream, self-promoting by e-zines and fanzines operating away from both gay and straight scenes.
Riot Grrl: Technically this should be Neo-Riot Grrl but let's not split hairs. This is music for politically grown up Spice Girls' fans. Gossip are the new icons of the genre along with Le Tigre and Beth Ditto. Their philosophy is 'make yourself who you want to be'. Punk for feminists.
Shoegaze: Shoegaze was a phrase coined to describe the kind of band where the lead singer looks uncomfortably down at their shoes rather than desperately gazing into the audience hoping to feel the love. Yet, the music is far from boring, with fuzzy guitars and a wall of sound making the vocal sound tiny in comparison. The newly reformed Jesus and Mary Chain are past masters at the game.
Twee Pop: Dreamy, sickly-sweet melodies, jingley-jangley guitars and lead singers dressed to the nines in tweed, Twee Pop will have you reaching for your literary classics and buying new albums on vinyl. Listening to Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura or The Decemberists is bound to make your cheeks hurt from smiling ridiculously wide, while darning your socks.
Urban Jazz: The kind of thing 50 Cent might listen to on a Sunday morning before walking the pitbull. This is cool jazz with rap thrown in.
Vocal House: Big beefy bass lines, massive vocals by powerhouses such as Loleatta Holloway will make you dance, sing and hug strangers and tell them you love them. Basement Jaxx (left) are the ruling chart masters.
Video Gaming: Others are turning to the multibillion-pound Video Gaming Music market to make their fortune. Here bleeps and blips against drum machines mixed with pumping synth bass lines keep the kids clicking away on the consoles. Watch out for trendy newcomers Crystal Castles: they will be huge when this goes mainstream.
World Fusion: For those who find world music a little bit too Peter Gabriel, World Fusion blends sounds from across the globe which wouldn't – and some say shouldn't – be put together. Sri Lankan-born Briton M.I.A.'s latest offering, Kala, offers a good introduction.
Xoomii: Asian yodelling popularised for a Western audience by Bjork with her "challenging" 2004 vocal album Medulla. The sound is like nothing you've heard before, mixing heavy breathing and the swirling of phlegm to make something which some may find akin to the sound of fingernails on a blackboard.
Yo-pop: Yo-pop: Catch it at Womad, this sound is huge in Lagos. Its biggest star is Segan Adewale.
Zombi Hip-Hop: Damon Albarn's virtual group Gorillaz invented Zombie Hip-Hop as a phrase to describe themselves. It infuses elements of New York rap over slow burn grooves and electronics to create a dark, brooding sound which will release the flesh-eating monster within.

[Agora, tentem aprender qualquer coisa, que a minha generosidade tem dias... e nos próximos dias até tenho mais que fazer. Beijos e serpentinas.]

Like An Angel Passing Through My Room
(Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus)
Anne Sofie Von Otter / Elvis Costello


Long awaited darkness falls
Casting shadows on the walls
In the twilight hour I am alone
Sitting near the fireplace, dying embers warm my face
In this peaceful solitude
All the outside world subdued
Everything comes back to me again
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

Half awake and half in dreams
Seeing long forgotten scenes
So the present runs into the past
Now and then become entwined, playing games within my mind
Like the embers as they die
Love was one prolonged good-bye
And it all comes back to me tonight
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

I close my eyes
And my twilight images go by
All too soon
Like an angel passing through my room

[resposta possível ao repto da Shyznogud]

1. A Bíblia - tentativa de leitura tardia; a história parece que é interessante; o texto é fastidioso; prefiro o filme.
2. A Nossa Vida Sexual, Fritz Kahn - leitura às escondidas na adolescência; as imagens são pouco realistas; faltava-lhe um kit para as aulas práticas.
3. Os Miseráveis, Victor Hugo - li os oito (ou seriam cinco?) volumes de uma edição do Círculo de Leitores, numas férias de Verão; tive pesadelos por causa dele quando andei de metro pela primeira vez em Paris; não senhor, não prefiro o musical (nunca vi, nem quero).
4. Memorial do Convento, José Saramago - o livro que mais vezes tentei ler; o mais que consegui foi chegar à página 34; perdi sempre o fôlego por causa da falta dos pontos finais (ou seria das vírgulas?).
5. A Montanha Mágica, Thomas Mann - nunca li; pessoa amiga e confiável anda atrás dele há anos e eu ajudo; há anos que não há, seja nas livrarias, seja nos alfarrabistas; um fenómeno que me intriga.
6. O Suicídio, Emile Durkheim - nos tempos de faculdade, era a Bíblia de todas as ciências sociais; um sociólogo mostra como se faz a ciência estudando um tema bué da giro; nunca percebi a utilidade da coisa (também não percebo a utilidade da sociologia, mas isso é de outro inquérito).
7. O Nome da Rosa, Umberto Eco - achava graça aos ensaios do gajo, assim a dar para o modernaço (Apocalípticos e Integrados é um título do caraças), mas os romances são uma estucha altamente evitável; são bons para ler na praia - dá um ar intelectual, são grossos pelo que duram as férias todas e pode-se fingir que se lê, enquanto se catrapiscam as curvas da vizinha.
8. Office Passo a Passo - houve uma altura em que me deu para comprar umas coisas de informática que explicam em 900 páginas aquilo que se pode fazer intuitivamente em 5 minutos em frente ao computador; mais tarde aprendi outras formas de abrasar dinheiro.
9. Como Cuidar do Coração e das Artérias, Frank W. Cawood - comprei-o (diz na contracapa que custou 3.780 escudos, o que quer que isso seja...) quando descobri que sou um candidato a morte macaca, fulminante, mas muito civilizacional; nunca li; a prevenção não é o meu forte.
10. Lista Telefónica de Lisboa -todos os anos confiro se ainda lá tenho o nome impresso (mais que prova de vida, uma prova de estupidez...); nunca mais lhe pego; ultimamente, a gata deu-lhe para achar que é um bom sítio para dormir. Um livro que mudou a vida... dela.

Bom, para começar convém saber qual a pergunta:
Os 10 livros que não mudaram a minha vida?
Os 10 livros que não marcaram a minha vida?
Depois... bom, depois há uma infinidade de preliminares antes de chegarmos lá.
Livros que nunca lemos? Porque não tivémos oportunidade? Porque teimámos «este não leio»? Ou livros que começámos a ler e deitámos fora após duas ou três tentativas de leitura? Ou livros que lemos, de fio a pavio, e dissémos «baahh» quando acabámos? Ou que lemos e dissémos «tá bem abelha»?
Isto não é, saliente-se, uma nega. Vou responder, ai isso vou. E, como prova da minha boa vontade, até começo a corrente antes da resposta. Aí vão, pois, os cinco desafios - ora então diga lá que livros o deixaram para lá de indiferente? Desafiam-se:
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, porque é o homem que mais lê em Portugal e a experiência é um mérito;
Pacheco Pereira, porque nunca responde a desafios e assim pode ser que esta coisa acabe já aqui;
Pedro Correia, para evitar que seja obrigado a uma terceira rodada de cidades que nunca mais esquecerá, ou, pior, a uma lista de vilas e aldeias onde já passou um fim-de-semana catita;
Charlotte, porque começou, e bem, a barafustar (coisa rara nela) logo que viu as primeiras respostas, porque deve haver livros destes lá nas minas, e porque sim;
Maradona, porque tem umas pernas bonitas.

The Animals Were Gone, Damien Rice


Woke up and for the first time the animals were gone
It's left this house empty now, not sure if I belong
Yesterday you asked me to write you a pleasant song
I'll do my best now, but you've been gone for so long

The window's open now and the winter settles in
We'll call it Christmas when the adverts begin
I love your depression and I love your double chin
I love 'most everything that you bring to this offering

Oh I know that I left you in places of despair
Oh I know that I love you, so please throw down your hair
At night I trip without you, and hope I don't wake up
'Cause waking up without you is like drinking from an empty cup

Woke up and for the first time the animals were gone
Our clocks are ticking now so before our time is gone
We could get a house and some boxes on the lawn
We could make babies and accidental songs

I know I've been a liar and I know I've been a fool
I hope we didn't break yet, but I'm glad we broke the rules
My cave is deep now, yet your light is shining through
I cover my eyes, still all I see is you

Oh I know that I left you in places of despair
Oh I know that I love you, so please throw down your hair
At night I trip without you, and hope I don't wake up
'Cause waking up without you is like drinking from an empty cup.

...