After four weeks drought

Here the rain comes - hopefully without hailstones.

Just to cool myself down

Happy Birthday to a "Titan"

Gustav Mahler

¡Que Viva España!

As I wrote here and there: If the German team plays as fine a football as against England and Argentina, they will have a chance.
I would not mind, though, if the Spanish team won; as long as they play fair and are better.

Well, and tonight the Spanish team was better!

What fascinated me: Seldom I saw such important a match with almost no fouls.

Thus, here we go:

 

Die Gedanken sind frei

Die Gedanken sind frei

Die Gedanken sind frei,
Wer kann sie erraten;
Sie fliehen vorbei
Wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen,
Kein Jäger erschießen;
Es bleibet dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei.

Ich denk was ich will,
Und was mich beglücket,
Doch alles in der Still,
Und wie es sich schicket.
Mein Wunsch und Begehren
Kann niemand verwehren,
Es bleibet dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei.

Und sperrt man mich ein
Im finsteren Kerker,
Das alles sind rein
Vergebliche Werke;
Denn meine Gedanken
Zerreissen die Schranken
Und Mauern entzwei:
Die Gedanken sind frei.

Drum will ich auf immer
Den Sorgen entsagen
Und will mich auf nimmer
Mit Drillen mehr plagen.
Man kann ja im Herzen
Stets lachen und scherzen
Und denken dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei.

The thoughts are free!

The thoughts are free!
Who can guess them?
They fly along like nightly shadows
No man can know them
No hunter can shoot them
It remains as it is:
The thoughts are free! 

I think about what I want 
and what makes me happy
But everything in the still,
and as it's appropriate.
My wish and desire
Nobody can refuse,
It stays this way:
The thoughts are free!

And if they lock me
In a dark dungeon
All these are simply
(most) futile works
Cause my thoughts
do tear apart
The bars and walls:
Thoughts are free!

That's why I shall forever
renounce all worries
And shall never tease myself
with drilling anymore
Because one can in one's heart
always keep laughing and joking
While thinking: The thoughts are free.

Don't cry for me, Argentina ...

La mort des loups

Obviously

Ní fuláir deachmhadh na sláinte dhíol.

One must health pay its tithes.

Full age attained

Yesterday, around midnight I suddenly thought of that my father who - exactly four months after my mother - died 21 years ago, and I now have attained full age: he as a dead, I as an orphan.

'Oh, how disrespectful!'

Sure?

Anyway, the corners of our mouths enjoyed a jocund expedition to the ear-lobes.

Just a thought

Knowledge is not an abstract homogeneous good, of which there cannot be enough. Beyond the last flutter of actual or possible significance, pedantry begins.
Jacques Barzun

Encore

[Mr. O'Donnell's wish was my command]

Mediterranean Sundance

Just too hot

This morning: bright sunshine, blue sky, no wind, at 9 o'clock already 26°C; watering the flowers on the graveyard.

A voice behind me:

- Good morning, Mr. J.

- Ah, good morning, Mrs. D.  The dear dead are thirsty these days, aren't they?

- Indeed, it's awful hot.

- Well, up here it's certainly a bit warmer than down there. Want to move six feet under? I did not ask.

- A bit warmer? Hot it is! Awful hot. I am sweltering. [laughing]

- Oh well. Take it easy. It's summer. In six months you'll complain about how cold it is, and the oil-price, I did not say. 

- I have nothing against summer. But that's just too much.

- 26°C? Too much? 

- The heat came too fast. And the day has just begun. Don't you feel it?

 ...

 I felt ... indeed ... reminded of different kinds of heat:

In case you wish to dive a bit deeper into Harun Farocki's work, here's for a beginning.

Oh, and to the lady's question I (smilingly) replied: Yes, I do. What about just enjoying life?

And her answer: Soon I will. We'll spend our holiday in Tunesia.