ghanaian film posters

 

i've only recently come across the joyous world of ghanaian film posters. the nerdist explains

matrakci nasuh

 

matrakci (spelling!) nasuh seems to me yet another of those middle eastern/central asian/ottoman types who is unjustly neglected because europeans just can't read the language. the amount of his images is limited on google bu worth a look

mrs dalloway

 it's interesting, i think, to watch the approach other people have when they teach. these, which are woefully undersubscribed, are apparently for younger people - although i don't know any 'younger' people who would watch these, let alone read the source material! i also liked comparing and contrasting what he does here to how i looked at mrs dalloway, away back in the day. parallels with the classics would've been frowned upon! is there a link between that type of restricitive educational practice and the dismal politics of today? i wonder! lol 

still, a nice non taxing way to start the day

walter benjamin

 

what if, as the article suggests, walter benjamin's work was intended for a non-academic audience he was writing today? would he have written the work of art in the age of porn, cats and love island? acyually? likely he would!

macbeth

 i'm not going to lie - i was very excited when this appeared

theory of mind

 

i'm aghast at the sort of things people are coming out with these days, cognitive dissonance on a scale i've never been aware of before. or am i? nice wee article in aeon on theory of mind

monika herceg

i was very taken with this group of poems by monika herceg at asymptote 

lake

coming home from the village’s barrelhouse

mato fell into a ditch drunk

and slumbered in the snow

meridians of his travelogues

fell out of his hat

and sunk into the depths of the soft snow

drawing on the icy cushion

a unique map of the world

four continents on which

he drove wild horses

sprang up underneath the dry snow

volga’s delta slopped over

right under his head

and he dreamt of the fishermen

in the caspian sea

throwing the nets

filling them with rare specimens

gigantic belugas and sterlets

carelessly awakening

the creatures petrified at the bottom

the largest lake

mato always told the neighbors

its waters never flow out

he never married

had children

nor grandchildren

and had he

maybe he would’ve run faster and bolder

like startled cattle

when the water snakes surfaced

and dragged him down

to the bottom

hot sauce

 wil yeung and vegan richa just make the internet a better place 

a malady called nationalism

 

was taken with this article about xenophobia in the nineteenth century from lapham's. ernest renan is namechecked. what is a nation still worth reading, even if the man himself, even by the standards of the day, is less than sympathetic. and also because it's difficult to imagine the presentation of such a nuanced argument by a public figure today

gabriela mistral

spanish practice with gabriela mistral

english version here 

original manuscript version here

and some biographical detail here

La contadora, de Gabriela Mistral

Cuando camino se levantan
todas las cosas de la Tierra,
y se paran y cuchichean
y es su historia lo que cuentan.

Y las gentes que caminan,
en la ruta me la dejan
y la recojo de caída
en capullos que son de huellas.

Historias corren mi cuerpo
o en mi regazo ronronean.
Zumban, hierven y abejean.
Sin llamada se me vienen
y contadas tampoco me dejan.

Las que bajan por los árboles
se trenzan y se destrenzan,
y me tejen y me envuelven
hasta que el mar las ahuyenta.
Pero el mar que cuenta siempre,
más rendida, nos deja.

Los que están mascando bosque
y los que rompen la piedra,
al dormirse quieren historias.

Mujeres que buscan hijos
perdidos que no regresan
y las que se creen vivas
y no saben que están muertas,
cada noche piden historias
y yo me rindo cuenta que cuenta.

A medio camino quedo
entre ríos que no me sueltan,
y el corro se va cerrando
y me atrapan en la rueda.

Al pulgar van llegando las de animales
al índice las de muertos.
Las de niños, de ser tantas,
en las palmas me hormiguean.

Los marineros alocados
que las piden, ya no navegan,
y las que cuentan se las digo
delante de la mar abierta.

Tuve una que iba en vuelo
de albatroses y tijeretas.
Se oía el viento, se lamía
la sal del mar contenta.
La olvidé de tierra adentro
como el pez que no alimentan.

¿En dónde estará una historia
que volando en gaviota ebria
cayó a mis faldas un día
y de tan blanca me dejó ciega?

Otra mujer cuenta lejos
historia que salva y libera,
tal vez la tiene, tal vez la trae
hasta mi puerta antes que muera.

Cuando tomaba así mis brazos
el que yo tuve, todas ellas
en regato de sangre corrían
mis brazos una noche entera.

Ahora yo, vuelta al Oriente,
se las voy dando por que recuerde.

Los viejos las quieren mentidas,
los niños las piden ciertas.
Todos quieren oír la historia mía
que en mi lengua viva está muerta.
Busco alguna que la recuerde,
hoja por hoja, hebra por hebra.
Le presto mi aliento, le doy mi marcha
por si al oírla me la despierta.

monteverdi - madrigals

 this is the type of thing i went to see the other day. it was book 8 so this has more instruments in it but why not! 

shawshank redemption soundtrack

 here's rik beato having a close look at the music for the opening shot of the shawshank redemption. was super happy, seeing as i'd been out at my monteverdi thing the other night, that i knew exactly what a basso ostinato was! 

misirlou

great wee technique video with a nice bit of background. never thought i'd be relating the oud to this but once you hear it you wonder how you ever missed it!

abg interpretation

pretty decent schema for metabolic acidosis (one of three), including a reasonable explanation of interpreting anion gap which, in my experience, is often done badly, if at all, and explained even worse!

eduardo galeano

 

also on the list is eduardo galeano, not least because i think i may have spanish exams in the new year. plenty of interviews available in english but he has a beautiful, to my ears, spanish speaking voice, so good practice for me. an aside - anglophones should bless the cheap price of their books!

italo calvino

 

ongoing close reading is going back to italo calvino. am finding he seems to get better the slower you read him

hannah arendt

 

on my close reading list for winter is arendt's origins of totalitarianism so this is handy

daria kolosova

 

some top skills on display here. but mainly, seeing as i'm marooned in the land of the dead, missing my friends from ukraine and elsewhere

amelie lens

 

continuiing on the theme of vinyl mixing. but i'm also noting her unused electronic kit

don camilo b2b charq @ le mellotron

can't go wrong with this cover set

monteverdi madrigals

during covid there has been no culture. thus, in a couple of days i'm off to see me some monteverdi, about whom i know nothing and, it's true, i may only have chosen because it looks like there may be a theorbo in there (tho i'm willing to accept it may be an archlute). whatever, i'm off to see some actual musicians playing music

classes for grasses

and starting again

 and still covid! 

that said, i'm thoroughly bored with the other social media forms so i'm going to start posting back on here. not poetry or art as such (tho there'll likely be a bit of that) but mainly just stuff i've come across that i find interesting, which usually disappears into a facebook shaped void. so, with no further ado....