August beginning

Once again I feel relieved
that Fortune favours fools,
or as a German saying goes,
"Die dümmsten Bauern
ernten die größten Kartoffeln."
/
"The dumbest farmers
harvest the biggest potatoes".

Sometimes a saying
can be a great comfort.

Ach, Croagh Patrick!

In a few minutes it will be August. And only a few minutes ago I became aware of it is the last Sunday in July. Phew. 37 years ago on such a Sunday I climbed Croagh Patrick on my bare feet, one week after this agnostic had "made" Station Island, and thus kept a second promise I had given to myself. Lovely remembrance.

Croagh Patrick

St. Patrick's Purgatory

Station Island

Saturday Night Music – Iva Bittová

 

Alfred Schnittke (24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998)
Iva Bittová *22 July 1958

Beers & Books CCXXXI – Alistair MacLeod

I like to think
that I am telling a story rather than writing it.

Alistair MacLeod (20 July 1936 – 20 April 2014)

Beers & Books CCXXX – Laurent Binet

Civilizations
*
“What would you do if you ruled the world?”
The gigolo replied that he would abolish all laws.
Barthes said: “Even grammar?”

Laurent Binet * 19 July 1972

His rainbow-loving Highness

As I read the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
only very irregularly, I am very much indebted
to the Russian Embassy in Bern
for threatening the newspaper with legal action
for insulting the deeply religious President of the Russian Republic and vigorous defender of orthodox christianity.

Otherwise I might never had become aware
of this fine caricature of his rainbow-loving highness.

Saturday Night Music – Canto General

Pablo Neruda (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973)

Canto General

Mikis Theodorakis (12 July 1925 – 2 September 2021)

Maria Farantouri * 28 November 1947

Saturday Night Music – Sergiu Celibidache/Bolero

Sergiu Celibidache (11 July 1912 – 14 August 1996)

Skyflyer

Interesting face.

 

Sunday idyll

Whilst I was picking black currants,
the sky turned dark,
and behind my back painted this picture.

Beers & Books CCXXIX – The Letters of John McGahern

I think technique can be taught but I think
the only way to learn to write is to read,
and I see writing and reading as completely related.
One almost couldn't exist without the other.

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006)

Beers & Books CCXXVIII – E.T.A. Hoffmann

There is nothing
more marvellous or madder
than real life.

E.T.A. Hoffmann (24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822)

The Sandman

Mademoiselle de Scuderi

Razor-sharp insight

It is hard for me to listen to a perpetually nose-grabbing fast talker, but easy to recommend reading this article by Slavoj Žižek in the Guardian: Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine.