sábado, 31 de outubro de 2020

As Fúrias.

 


Bruxas no Halloween, seja. Então das mais velhinhas – umas antiguidades, pode ser? Estas são três: Megera, Alecto, Tisífone. Más como as cobras da cabeça de Alecto, cómicas no riso diabólico, sempre a tramá-las nas profundezas por desfastio, a maquinar castigos por dá cá aquela palha – cá e lá, entre a terra e o inferno, a vida e a morte.

Riso de Fúrias que fazem rir a cantar, malévolas, a pura essência de “a destruição é o nosso deleite”, enquanto congeminam afundar o barco de Eneias e arruinar a pobre Dido de desgosto (na ópera Dido e Eneias, de H. Purcell), só o ouvi mesmo com deleite a umas miúdas de Braga. Esse não tenho para mostrar, mas este serve.

Também nos podemos rir com as desmioladas Fúrias que fizeram uma espera a Orfeu nos infernos onde buscava a sua Eurídice (na ópera Orfeu e Eurídice, de C. Gluck), e não se lembraram de já ter torturado e arrastado Don Juan para os abismos ao som da mesmíssima música, sem tirar nem pôr (na ópera Don Juan ou o Festim de Pedra, também de Gluck).

Vale-nos Music for a While, a ária de H. Purcell para a peça Édipo, reescrita por John Dryden. Música por um tempo acalmará a dor; o seu poder fará cair as serpentes da cabeça de Alecto, o chicote das suas mãos, e fala-á libertar os mortos das suas grilhetas.

Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile:
Wond’ring how your pains were eas’d
And disdaining to be pleas’d
Till Alecto free the dead
From their eternal bands,
Till the snakes drop from her head,
And the whip from out her hands.


Manuela Ivone Cunha

 







 

Halloween sem bruxas.

 


 

Só ossos e músculos – digo, moluscos.

Os moluscos são dois caracóis que partem, num belo dia de Outono, para o enterro de uma folha caída. Mas, quando chegam, já é Primavera e outra festa começa. Deux escargots s'en vont à l'enterrement, de J. Kosma e J. Prévert, pelos Frères Jacques.

Os ossos, é claro, são os da Danse Macabre, de Camille Saint-Saëns. Primeiro, num baile animado com Leopold Stokowski à frente da National Philharmonic Orchestra. Depois, nos ossos-marimba de Adélaïde Ferrière, acompanhada por Matthieu Cognet.

Tudo de seguida, aqui em baixo






 

Manuela Ivone Cunha

 

 

 

Elijah Pierce.

 














O mais extraordinário é que Elijah Pierce e António Peralta, dois génios, não se conheciam, mas o que um e o outro faziam tem semelhanças tais que até nos perguntamos se não haverá mão divina a ampará-los aos dois, a ambos os dois.  

 





sexta-feira, 30 de outubro de 2020

A message from the Queen.

 






A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN




To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 



"In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA, and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, and Utah, which she does not fancy). 
 

Our new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.


Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. 
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect: 


1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). 

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of '-ize.'

 
3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. 


4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse. 


5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public. 


6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion
Tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour. 



7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it. 
8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

 
9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be
Referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will
 be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

 
10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater. 


11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American
Football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body Armour like a bunch of nancies).


12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries. 

 

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

 

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776). 


15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season. 

 

God Save the Queen!

 

P.S.:

Only share this with friends who have a good sense of humour (
 NOT humor )!

 






terça-feira, 27 de outubro de 2020

Trinta por uma Linha.




 

Não conheço o Afonso Eça (perdão!), mas o João Tiago Gaspar e o José Maria Pimentel são dos jovens mais talentosos e mais inteligentes e mais cultos e mais sensatos e independentes e mais boa gente e mais TOP que este país tem e que nos confortam que um dia haveremos de deixar isto em mãos bem melhores do que as nossas (se forem as deles, claro, e não as dessa cambada carreirista oportunista das jotinhas, que nojo). Exagero meu, já tontito do espírito? Ouçam o podcast Trinta por uma Linha, aqui


https://podtail.com/no/podcast/trinta-por-uma-linha/















O livro, em Espanha. E por cá?