Monday 19 November 2012

Sillage


My present BD reading is Morvan & Buchet's latest take on the series Sillage. It is no Valerian and Laureline but the drawings are awesome and the plot has taken some dark turns since the album infiltrations which have make it into my list of to be followed....

Sunday 18 November 2012

Vanishing cultures


Just bought this book from the Vanishing Cultures Project. I saw it first in Lo Manthang's library when visiting Mustang last September. The book is the result of a one year journey in Mustang, interviewing, photographing and studying the Loba culture. The result is both a beautiful book and a valuable testimony about the Loba way of life. As such, it surely deserves its place in Lo Manthang's library.

Sunday 11 November 2012

The Great Inquisitor

Sigmund Freud aptly noted that three of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time are concerned with the topic of parricide – Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

All three works are more so related by a common apparent motive for the deed: sexual rivalry for a woman. Parricide in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, however, transcends the love triangle between Grushenka, Dmitri and his father Fyodor; not only as the murder is committed by the fourth, illegitimate brother, Smerdyakov, but because of its metaphorical relationship to questions of God, the father. Concisely, “rebellion” of the Karamazov brothers towards their father Fyodor Pavlovich and God concerns the question: “is an unworthy and uncaring father still entitled to the love and respect of his sons?”

(in Lethbridge Undergraduate Research Journal. 2008. Volume 3 Number 2)


Alchimic

...et puisque on parle de Dostoïevski, je viens de faire, par son intermédiaire, la connaissance du théâtre Alchimic, à Genève, fondé en 2008 sur l'épave du "cinéma horizontal" fondé en 1961. Comme quoi on peut encore avoir de bonnes surprises à Genève... La pièce de ce soir était les frères Karamazov, adapté au théâtre par le dramaturge anglais Richard Crane. Recommandé par O Coxo...

 

Saturday 10 November 2012

carnets du sous-sol

Je vous assure, messieurs : avoir une conscience trop développée, c’est une maladie, une maladie dans le plein sens du terme. Dites-moi une chose : pourquoi est-ce que plus je prenais conscience du bien, de tout ce « beau » et ce « sublime », plus je m’engluais dans mon marais, et plus j’étais capable de m’y noyer complètement ?

(...)

Au fond du cœur, on n’y croit pas, qu’on souffre, c’est un sarcasme qui vous remue, mais moi, je souffre, et de la manière la plus vraie, la plus règlementaire ; je suis jaloux, je bous et je trépigne… Et tout cela, messieurs, c’est par ennui – oui, par ennui ; le poids de l’inertie. Car elle est un fruit direct, légitime, une conséquence logique de la conscience, cette inertie – cette position consciente les bras croisés. J’en ai parlé plus haut. Je le répète, je répète et j’insiste : les hommes spontanés, les hommes d’action sont justement des hommes d’action parce qu’ils sont bêtes et limités. Comment j’explique cela ? Très simple : c’est cette limitation qui leur fait prendre les causes les plus immédiates, donc les causes secondaires, pour des causes premières ; ainsi parviennent-ils plus facilement et plus vite que les autres à se convaincre d’avoir trouvé la base indubitable de leur affaire – et ça les tranquillise ; et c’est là l’essentiel. Parce que, pour se mettre à agir, il faut d’abord avoir l’esprit tranquille, il faut qu’il n’y ait plus la moindre place pour les doutes.

(Fiodor Dostoïevski in "notes from the underground")

Thursday 9 August 2012

Retirement

Coxo hiking boots.
Last hike: Landmannalaugar, Iceland.

RIP.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

the abominable disorder of life


- If I wanted, I could go mad. I know a lot of terrible stories. I've seen a lot, I heard of extraordinary situations, I... myself... well... sometimes I just can't cope with it all. Because, you know, you wake up at four in the morning in an empty room, you light a cigarette... Do you know what I mean? The match's dim light suddenly bringing to life a mass of shadows, the shirt on the chair assuming an impossible volume, our life... do you see it?... our life, the whole life lies there like an excessive event... You need to tide it all up very quickly. Fortunately there's the style. No clue what it is? Let's see: style is a subtle way of transferring life's violence and confusion to the mental plane of a unit of meaning. Do I make myself clear? No? Well, we can't stand the abominable disorder of life. So we take it, reduce it to two or three topics that can be equated. Then, by means of an intellectual artefact, we state that those topics stand on a common topic, let's say, Love or Death. Do you understand? one of those abstractions that can be used for anything.

From "Estilo" in "Os passos em volta" by Herberto Helder
losely translated from portuguese by O Coxo

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Any where out of the world

N'importe où hors du monde
 
Cette vie est un hôpital où chaque malade est possédé du désir de changer de lit. Celui-ci voudrait souffrir en face du poêle, et celui-là croit qu'il guérirait à côté de la fenêtre.

Il me semble que je serais toujours bien là où je ne suis pas, et cette question de déménagement en est une que je discute sans cesse avec mon âme.

(...)

Enfin, mon âme fait explosion, et sagement elle me crie: "N'importe où! n'importe où! pourvu que ce soit hors de ce monde!"

Charles Baudelaire (1821- 1867)

Tuesday 26 June 2012

vortice

Era uma vez um pintor que tinha um aquário com um peixe vermelho. Vivia o peixe tranquilamente acompanhado pela sua cor vermelha até que principiou a tornar-se negro a partir de dentro, um nó preto atrás da cor encarnada. O nó desenvolvia-se alastrando e tomando conta de todo o peixe.

O problema do artista era que, obrigado a interromper o quadro onde estava a chegar o vermelho do peixe, não sabia que fazer da cor preta que ele agora lhe ensinava. Os elementos do problema constituíam-se na observação dos factos e punham-se por esta ordem: peixe, vermelho, pintor — sendo o vermelho o nexo entre o peixe e o quadro através do pintor. O preto formava a insídia do real e abria um abismo na primitiva fidelidade do pintor.

Ao meditar sobre as razões da mudança exactamente quando assentava na sua fidelidade, o pintor supôs que o peixe, efetuando um número de mágica, mostrava que existia apenas uma lei abrangendo tanto o mundo das coisas como o da imaginação. Era a lei da metamorfose.

Compreendida esta espécie de fidelidade, o artista pintou um peixe amarelo.

(Herberto Helder in "os passos em volta")

Tuesday 19 June 2012

the kite

(picture taken in Pushkar, India, 2009 by O Coxo)

Monday 30 April 2012

FIFOG


Saturday 28 April 2012

Monday 23 April 2012

Delires - Alchimie du verbe

À moi. L'histoire d'une de mes folies.

Depuis longtemps je me vantais de posséder tous les paysages possibles, et trouvais dérisoires les célébrités de la peinture et de la poésie moderne.

J'aimais les peintures idiotes, dessus de portes, décors, toiles de saltimbanques, enseignes, enluminures populaires ; la littérature démodée, latin d'église, livres érotiques sans orthographe, romans de nos aïeules, contes de fées, petits livres de l'enfance, opéras vieux, refrains niais, rythmes naïfs.

Je rêvais croisades, voyages de découvertes dont on n'a pas de relations, républiques sans histoires, guerres de religion étouffées, révolutions de moeurs, déplacements de races et de continents : je croyais à tous les enchantements.

(In "une saison en enfer", Jean-Arthur Rimbaud)

Visions du réel


Thursday 5 April 2012

Electron


Wednesday 21 March 2012

Thursday 15 March 2012

wild mood swings


and suddenly I grasp what I thought was just a catchy title

Sunday 11 March 2012

Porto


Não nasci por acaso nestas pedras
mas para aprender dureza,
lume excedido,
coragem de mãos lúcidas.

Aqui no avesso da construção dos tempos
a palavra liberdade
é menos secreta.

Anda nos olhos da rua,
pega lanças aos gestos,
tira punhais das lágrimas,
conclui as manhãs.

E principalmente
não cheira a museu azedo
ou musgo embalado
pela chuva da boca dos mortos.

Começa nos cabelos das crianças
para me sentir mais nascido nestas pedras.

Porto
- cidade de luz de granito.

Tristeza de luz viril
com punhos de grito.

(Poema de José Gomes Ferreira)

Monday 5 March 2012

Tuesday 28 February 2012

FIFDH


FIFDH is back with its selection of films and documentaries on human rights issues, and in particular those often forgotten by the mainstream (and even the not-so-mainstream) media. Recommended by O Coxo.

Thursday 16 February 2012

ad hoc

O louco apercebe-se da inexorável descida à loucura.

Hipótese 1:
A lucidez exonera-o da condição de louco.
A percepção da loucura é incompatível com o estado sobre o qual se debruça.

Hipótese 2
A lucidez agrava a condição de louco.
A percepção da loucura facilita a imersão no estado percebido.
O sujeito afunda-se numa espiral de assombro.

Os conceitos:
1.
A lucidez: uma hiper sensibilidade a estímulos externos.
(digamos que os estímulos externos são facilmente interiorizados)
2.
A loucura: uma hiper permeabilidade a estímulos internos.
(digamos que os estímulos internos são facilmente exteriorizados)

Aqui se vê o peso que se coloca na distinção entre externo e interno.

Ora aí é que está o busílis.


(O Coxo)

Wednesday 15 February 2012

le bar sous la mer

Adapted from Stefano Benni's book "Il bar sotto il mare", the company of Theatre du Loup, in Geneva, is showing the play le bar sous la mer until february 19th. O Coxo recommends this funny, sometimes poetic and refreshingly unpretentious performance of Theatre du Loup.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Black Movie


Geneva, Feb 2012: The black movie festival is back for its 2012 edition.

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Syria


Euphrates' cities and
Palmyra's streets and you
Forests of columns in the level desert
What are you now?

Your crowns, because
You crossed the boundary
Of breath,
Were taken off
In Heaven's smoke and flame;

But I sit under clouds (each one
Of which has peace) among
The ordered oaks, upon
The deer's heath, and strange
And dead the ghosts of the blessed ones
Appear to me.

(poem "ages of life" by Friedrich Hölderlin )


Thursday 2 February 2012

the passenger


Get into the car
We'll be the passenger
We'll ride through the city tonight
We'll see the city's ripped backsides
We'll see the bright and hollow sky
We'll see the stars that shine so bright
Stars made for us tonight

(picture: winner picture from death row prisoners' last meals by Helen Grace Ventura Thompson)
(text: lyrics from the song "the passenger" by Iggy pop)

Monday 30 January 2012

Det sjunde inseglet

one of the most impressive scenes of Ingmar Bergman's film: "The Seventh Seal". The knight confesses to Death himself, whith whom he has been playing his own life in a chess match.

Friday 27 January 2012

outono

o rosto no espelho ainda me surpreende
e no entanto já o deixei há muito tempo
no tempo em que a loucura era um capricho primaveril
para nos fazer sorrir.

Agora é outono.
tempo de folhas mortas e espelhos partidos

(por: O Coxo)

Monday 9 January 2012

Water


In the café they bring me a glass of water
as if it could solve all my problems.
How ridiculous, I think: there is no solution.
And yet, after drinking the water,
I stop feeling thirsty.
And this exclusively organic sensation
brings me a moment of calm.
How well they understand philosophy, I think,
and then go back to my anxiety.

(poem by Gonçalo Tavares, translation by Richard Zenith)

A água

No café trazem-me um copo com água
como se ele resolvesse todos os meus problemas.
É ridículo – penso – não há saída.
No entanto, depois de beber a água
fico sem sede.
E a sensação exclusiva do organismo
acalma-me por momentos.
Como eles sabem de filosofia – penso –
e regresso, logo a seguir, à angústia.

(poema de Gonçalo Tavares)