Thursday, December 31, 2020

Same Procedure as Every Year

If counted well the Germans today can/could watch Dinner for One (The 90th Birthday) 16 times at different times on various TV-channels, and apart from the original in various German dialects, inclusive Schwiizerdütsch (Swiss German). Very strange folks, the Germans. Well, judge for yourself. 

Tiny tip-off: Be absolutely determined not to laugh. 

 

Dinner for One

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Afternoon pleasures

Kitchen view
while freshly prepared espresso's scent
was spoiling my olfactorium.

Monday, December 28, 2020

Friday, December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas!


Every year again
Comes the Christ Child
Down to earth
Where we humans are.

Stops with its blessing
At every house
Walks on all paths
With us in and out.

Merry Christmas, then,

Goodwill to all people
and Peace on Earth.

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Monday, December 21, 2020

Pablo de Lucía



To enjoy on youtube

Paco de Lucía (21 December 1947 – 25 February 2014)

Pepe de Lucia - vocal 

Ramon de Algeciras - guitar 
Juan Manuel Canizares - guitar 
Carlos Benavent - bass 
Jorge Pardo - saxophone & flute 
Rubem Dantas - percussion / cajón flamenco 
Joaquin Grilo - dancer

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Beers & Books XL

I often feel,
and ever more deeply I realize,
that fate and character
are the same conception.

Novalis 2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Friday, December 18, 2020

Beers & Books Havel

Moc Bezmocných* (1978)
literally translated:
The Power of the Powerless
*
The German publishers titled:
Versuch, in der Wahrheit zu leben
(Attempt to Live in Truth)
1980 / 1989 / 1990
*
The English title:
Living in Truth (1986)
 

Václav Havel (5 October 1936 18 December 2011)

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Laughing Lhursday*

Natural Arts:
Butterface on knife point

* [For first time visitors]: Typo in the title? Nah. It's just that
I would not let a tiny T spoil an avantgardistic alliteration.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Beers & Books XXXIX

Today no beer.
On Edna O'Brien's 90th birthday
I shall raise a glass of wine
on her good health.
Sláinte, Saoi!
Agus go raibh maith agat as gach.



Edna O'Brien *15 December 1930

La Cetra Barockorchester Basel



La Cetra Barockorchester Basel

Monday, December 14, 2020

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Mail on Sunday

Today it's to be read on the frontpage of an English newspaper that Merkel wants Britain to crawl across broken glass.
Cited is an unspecified source as saying that the German chancellor was determined to see Britain suffer rather than reach a compromise on the sticking points of future government aid and fishing.

And who would not immediately and wholeheartedly believe?! After all it is coming from excellently educated journalists whose living is clean, whose manners are impeccable and who would never lie.

The more surprised I got, when my always trustworthy and absolutely reliable source let me know that she had heard by someone who knows the cousin of the doctor who had once got the opportunity to look in said journalist's brain, that instead of grey matter the one who had written the above has brown matter in his head.
Before I could ask for more details my always best-informed source went on:
"There is no need to worry for the average English(wo)man who does not only want her respectively his money but also her  respectively his sovereignty back.
Alternative fact is that each week 350 million quid will be pumped into the NHS, farmers will become rich, and the blessed English sovereigns will not be able to eat all the fish brave English fisherman will bring back from sea, escorted and protected against all the evil fishermen from abroad."

I hardly could believe my ears.
Finally my extraordinary credible source quoted Heinrich Heine on his 223rd birthday:  

"I have never seen an ass who wrote like a human being, but I have met many human beings who wrote like asses."

P.S. On request of A.Brit, readers may in their grey (sic!) matter replace England and English with GREAT Britain and British, because, of course, the people in Northern Ireland, in Scotland and Wales are blessed GREAT British sovereigns, too, and thus also will enjoy all the most wonderful fruits of what is their majority's will.

Beers & Books XXXVIII

"Where one burns books
one ultimately burns people."

- Almansor, 1832 -

  Heinrich Heine (13. December 1797 – 17 February 1856)

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The Noble Handke, Karadžić and the Leuchter Report

Reading what I posted last year on December 10th, I thought it's worth to get re-posted.

- -

How cometh, tonight I remember an episode of October 10th? Anyway, I do, as well as I know one ought not to disturb my friend while he is busy with proof-reading his 1669 pages short opus magnum "Pre-Assyrian Philately in a Nutshell".

I, entering his sanctuary.

He, without looking up: You would not dare to ask for my opinion about the Nobel Comitee's decision?

– Now you ask.

– Inconsequent.

– Inconsequent?

– Quite. Consequent would have been, had they split the Prize: 430,000 Euro for Handke, and 430,000 for the great poet Radovan Karadžić.

– You are kidding, Tetrapilotomos. Don't like Peter Handke, eh?

– An overrated egomaniac.

– It's easy to criticise. Did you read anything of him, perhaps, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick?

- This and enough to see that, from the beginning, when Offending the Audience, he was an overrated bore. And now he's but an old fart.

- He will be able to live with that.

- Unfortunately, yes.

– May I ask if you read A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia?

– You may.

– And? Did you?

– Yes. 1996. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In the same year I also read "The Poet's Anxiety at the Reality"*, in which 16 journalists and authors had answered to the Handke Report, amongst them Marcel Ophuls, Dževad Karahasan, Bora Ćosić and Günter Kunert.




– Handke Report?

– Yes, Would have been the right title for what obviously is his opus magnum; showing his character in a nutshell.

– You would not mean, Handke Report analogue to a certain Leuchter Report, would you?

– Now you surprise me, Sean.

– You mean, he made his winterly journey allegedly to prove Serbian atrocities only to find out: Fake news?

– Well, fake news make presidents. Why not Nobel Prize Winners? In other words: Why should very young external advisors of the Nobel-Prize-Comitee be not as stupid as simple voters?

– Is it as simple as that?

– Well, perhaps one day they find time to read "The Little Red Chairs" and come to the conclusion that, amongst a few others, Edna O'Brien would have been the better choice.



* Die Angst des Dichters vor der Wirklichkeit, © Steidl Verlag, 1996

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Beers & Books XXXVI

A Manual for Cleaning Women
 
Lucia Berlin
(12 November 1936 – 12 November 2004)

Monday, December 07, 2020

Monochrome Monday

15:08

 Update:

In "full colour"
it does, of course, look nice, too.

Sunday, December 06, 2020

Beers&Books XXXV

Thanks, Saint Nicholas!
This morning in my boots
I found
exactly the six books I had asked for.
Plus: A bottle of Talisker.
I almost fainted:
of joy and disappointment.
Had not my third wish been
to find the author in my boot
so that, after all,
we could share the bottle?!
Oh well,
to prove my good will
I shall drink each second wee dram
on his behalf.
Sláinte, Andrew!

P.S. In a little note I just discovered
where usually my toes are to be found,
St. Nicholas let me know
that it would have been his pleasure
to present me with the author,
"but your boots are to small".

Saturday, December 05, 2020

Friday, December 04, 2020

Thursday, December 03, 2020

Beers & Books XXXIV

 

Bernard Foy's Third Castling

Lars Gustafsson (17 May 1936 – 3 April 2016)

Wednesday, December 02, 2020

Tuesday, December 01, 2020

Padroni di niente

 

Fiorella Mannoia *4 April 1954

Padroni di niente

Passa, certo che passa
il tempo cammina e lascia la sua traccia
disegna una riga sopra la mia fronte
come fosse la linea di un nuovo orizzonte
cambia, la mia faccia cambia
cambia lamia testa, il mio punto di vista
la mia opinione sulle cose o sulla gente
cambia del tutto o non cambia per niente
 
E poi e poi e poi sarà che quando penso
di voler cambiare il mondo
poi succede che è lui che invece cambia me
e poi e poi e poi sarà che quando penso
di voler salvare il mondo
poi succede che è lui che invece salva me
 
Passa, è certo che passa
l’uomo cammina e lascia la sua traccia
costruisce muri sopra gli orizzonti
stabilisce confini, le leggi, le sorti
sbaglia, sbaglia chi non cambia
chi genera paura, chi alimenta rabbia
la convinzione che non cambierà mai niente
è solo un pensiero che inquina la mente
 
E poi e poi e poi sarà che quando penso
di voler cambiare il mondo
poi succede che è lui che invece cambia me
e poi e poi e poi sarà che quando sento
di voler salvare il mondo
poi succede che è lui che invece salva me
 
C’è che siamo padroni di tutto e di niente
c’è l’uomo non vede, non parla e non sente
qui c’è gente che spera in mezzo a gente che spara
e dispera l’amore
qui c’è chi non capisce che prima di tutto
la vita è un valore
e se fosse che stiamo davvero sbagliando
e facendo il più brutto dei sogni mai fatti
e se fosse che stiamo soltanto giocando
una partita di scacchi tra il nero ed il bianco
il nero ed il bianco
 
E poi e poi e poi sarà che quando penso
di voler cambiare il mondo
poi succede che è lui che invece cambia me
e poi e poi e poi sarà che quando sento
di voler salvare il mondo
poi succede che è lui che invece salva me
 
C’è che siamo padroni di tutto e di niente
c’è che l’uomo non vede, non parla e non sente
qui c’è gente che spera in mezzo a gente che spara
e dispera l’amore
qui c’è chi non capisce che prima di tutto
la vita è un valore
la vita è un valore

Monday, November 30, 2020

Balcony View

Nice last November day

 

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Friday, November 27, 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Beers & Books XXXI

Himmerlandsgeschichten
A rediscovery, published this year.
Not in English, though.
 
Johannes V. Jensen
(20. January 1873 – 25 November 1950)


Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Beers & Books XXIX

Voltaire – Frederick II
Correspondence


Voltaire (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778)

Friedrich II ("the Great") 24 January 1712 – 17 August 1786)

Friday, November 20, 2020

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Writers: José Saramago

Each book a juwel.
Look and see.
All the Names
Blindness
Hellebarden (fragment)
Seeing
The Cave


 José Saramago (16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Monday, November 16, 2020

Friday, November 13, 2020

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Writers: John McGahern

Beckett, Joyce,
Flann O'Brien, Edna O'Brien
O'Casey, O'Cadhain,
O'Connor, O'Faolain, O'Flaherty,
etc., etc.,
there're so many great Irish writers.
And there's John McGahern.

 

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006)

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Writers: Carlos Fuentes



Carlos Fuentes (November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012)

Writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky

9,432 pages worth reading

Fyodor Dostoevsky (11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881)

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Balcony view

On a late autumn morning ...

... the head not having in the clouds.
[for a change]

 

Monday, November 09, 2020

Saturday, November 07, 2020

Saturday Night Music – Gregory Porter



Gregory Porter * 4 November 1971

A case of you



Joni Mitchell *7 November, 1943

"Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar"

On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
oh I would still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid

I remember that time you told me you said
"Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
"Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"

Oh but you are in my blood
You're my holy wine
You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet

Oh, I could drink a case of you darling

Friday, November 06, 2020

Thursday, November 05, 2020

Beers & Books XXVII

Alright, a beer and a film.

Alfred Wainwright (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991)

The Englishman who Went up a Hill and Came down a Mountain

Miserable fools

Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.

Arthur Schopenhauer
(22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860

Tuesday, November 03, 2020

Beers & Books XXVI

Morale in times of globalisation
- -
I think in English the title is
The Art of the Impossible

Václav Havel (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011)

Sunday, November 01, 2020

Carmen Amaya



Carmen Amaya ( 1 November 1913 – 19 November 1963)

Magic of Fandango



Carmen Amaya ( 1 November 1913 – 19 November 1963)

Sabicas (16 March 1912 – 14 April 1990)

Fandango

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Eyes walk

Autumn colours

on the golf course
in the wood
on its skirts
and everywhere
my eyes were walking.

 

Monday, October 26, 2020