Beers & Books CXXXIX – Anna Politkovskaya

We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss,
into an information vacuum
that spells death from our own ignorance.
All we have left is the internet,
where information is still freely available.
For the rest,
if you want to go on working as a journalist,
it's total servility to Putin.
Otherwise, it can be death,
the bullet, poison, or trial
– whatever our special services,
Putin's guard dogs, see fit.*

 
Anna Politkovskaya (30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006)

*Today 15 years ago, Anna Politkovskaya got murdered. Vladimir Putin celebrated his 54th birthday.

Beers & Books CXXXVIII – Flann O'Brien

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say that you need a change,
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

Flann O'Brien (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966)

Beers&Books CXXXVII – Denis Diderot

We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us,
but we sip only little by little
at a truth we find bitter.
*
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
*
The Christian religion teaches us
to imitate a God that is cruel, insidious, jealous,
and implacable in his wrath.
*
Watch out for the fellow
who talks about putting things in order!
Putting things in order always means
getting other people under your control.
*
No man has received from nature the right
to command his fellow human beings.

Denis Diderot ( 5 October 1713 –  31 July 1784)

Beers & Books CXXXVI – Louis Aragon

We know that the nature of genius is
to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later.

Louis Aragon (3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) 

Saturday Night Music – Alma Deutscher

Alma Deutscher *February 2005

Franz Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828)

Friday is Skyday

...

 

Nunca vas a comprender

 

Rita Payés * 29 September 1999

Beers & Books CXXXV– Michelangelo Antonioni

Scientific man is already on the moon,
and yet we are still living
with the moral concepts of Homer.
*
I meant exactly what I said:
that we are saddled with a culture
that hasn't advanced as far as science.

Michelangelo Antonioni (29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007)

Beers & Books CXXXIV – Miguel Cervantes

In order to attain the impossible,
one must attempt the absurd.

Miguel Cervantes (29 September 1547 – 23 April 1616

Beers & Books CXXXIII – André Breton

There is nothing
with which it is so dangerous to take liberties
as liberty itself.

André Breton (18 February 1896 – 28 September 1966)

Not only the flute's magic

 Fritz Wunderlich (26 September 1930 – 17 September 1966)

Saturday Night Music – Fritz Wunderlich

 

Fritz Wunderlich (26 September 1930 – 17 September 1966)

Beers & Books CXXXII – Antonio Tabucchi

Like a blazing comet,
I've traversed infinite nights,
interstellar spaces of the imagination,
voluptuousness and fear.
I've been a man, a woman, an old person,
a little girl,
I've been the crowds on the grand boulevards
of the capital cities of the West,
I've been the serene Buddha of the East, whose
calm and wisdom we envy.
I've known honour and dishonour,
enthusiasm and exhaustion. ...
I've been the sun and the moon, and everything
because life is not enough.
*
I live quietly at home among family and friends.

Antonio Tabucchi (24 September 1943 – 25 March 2012)