Shreds of a bizarre world
Here you won't find the pages of a pedantic journal, praises to fantastic places or accounts of memorable encounters. This is a collection of stories, thoughts, images, and most of all odd stuff, even though to someone else it might actually look ordinary. To discern its bizarre side, in fact, special filters are needed: cynicism, fussiness, stubbornness, isolation, impudence, nosiness and nerdiness. All flaws that, in different measure, this semi-nomadic being has got embedded in his genes.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Taking (contradictory) sides
I’ve noticed that, save for an irrelevant minority, people tend to stick to either one of the following groups: 1) those who are against Israel invading Lebanon AND in favor of Russia invading Ukraine or else 2) those who are in favor of Israel invading Lebanon AND against Russia invading Ukraine. The bullshitting-pseudo-noble-reason they might claim they took those contradicting sides for doesn’t matter much, like any other bullshitting-pseudo-noble-reason for that matter. It’ll be something about imperialism, capitalism, communism, totalitarianism, nationalism, fascism, racism, terrorism, zionism, islamism or any other “-ism”. What’s sure is that they are taking sides against one invasion AND in favor of the other one. Either one.
Labels:
eastern europe,
geopolitics,
invasions,
israel,
lebanon,
media,
middle east,
opinions,
palestine,
politics,
russia ukraine,
social media,
Wars
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Haiku
Haiku used to be the name of the first stanza of the Japanese ancient poems. It finally became a literary form itself. The shortest form of poetry, a haiku is always composed of three verses: five, seven and five syllables each.
Friday, September 20, 2024
Lady on a red boat with parasol
On the bridge parapet sits a girl who reads
against a misplaced blue-lagoon background
while the Oltrarno and the Historic Center swap
tourists turned hostages of their own accord.
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Twilight over the Arno
Molten gold seeps underground,
late summer vapors taper up,
a glowing bridge paints and repaints
the sky and the river two-tone blue.
Labels:
arno,
bridges,
english,
firenze,
florence,
literature,
photography,
poetry,
ponte vecchio,
river,
toscana,
tuscany
Friday, September 13, 2024
I'm calling the police - Irvin D. Yalom
This is a very short autobiographical story about a Jewish friend of the author who managed to escape the Nazis and flee from Budapest to the USA when he was only 17 years old, by himself, with basically no money, no contacts and no knowledge of the English language. And who then went on to become a top-skilled, world-famous heart surgeon.
Labels:
american,
autobiographies,
books,
english,
holocaust,
hungary,
jews,
judaism,
literature,
nazism
Monday, September 9, 2024
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Spoon River Anthology - Edgar Lee Masters
This is one of the most famous books of 20th century American poetry.
Unlike the previously reviewed Poet in New York by Garcia Lorca and Let us compare mythologies by Leonard Cohen, most of Masters' poems can be easily paraphrased. The text always tends to "mean" something easily understandable by the reader.
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