Visiting blogs, i quite often notice people recommending the latest film they've seen. Happened ten minutes ago, too. But then i asked myself "what's the latest film i've seen?" and quickly realized that the answer would have been a contradiction, for the "latest" film i've seen(i.e. this afternoon) is this one.
Her: Robin, you aren't talking much. What's wrong?
Me: Well, i've had a kind of strange day...
Her: Robiiin...all your days are strange. You're strange. It's inevitable, you know that!
Me: Right, forgot.
This comic is for people who occasionally think they might need a check-up at the ophtalmologist, but eventually never do.
-A night in the fridge will do these tomatoes good.
-There's nothing like a good cop, bad cop.
-A bird in the hand is an overused cliché.
John Cleese's kettle is finally mended, link courtesy of NewsFromMe.
And Woody Allen was interviewed at least seven times in 1971, link courtesy of HotPoop.
The fact that nothing much has been happening on this blog recently doesn't necessarily mean nothing was happening on other ones. Or at least i think that's what i meant to say.
Random good mood : two(for the time being) random thoughts.
-A man who asks his boss "what can i do in the meantime?" is a man who has never learnt how to play minesweeper.
-It's always good when Art goes against the rules. It's particularly good when it also goes against the law.
Speaking of relatives, my uncles&aunts who were visiting just left. Who knows when i'll get to see them again. This brief exchange was the parting gift from one uncle:
Me: Well, the others are already downstairs. Make sure you don't forget anything that's not valuable.
Him: Hey, don't expect me to come back around here so soon.
Me: Oh come on, i'll show up for a visit in Arica when you least expect it...
Him: Yeah, and I'll come back to visit you for your wedding.
Me: Oh, that'd be grea...FOR MY WHAT???
Oh, look! i actually clicked on "create new post"! I'm actually typing stuff into this little window! Now, those are things i hadn't seen happening in quite a while.
Now, to justify my one week absence(or, in other words, "what i did last week instead of studying")...well, i have no idea. Not that i don't remember what happened in the past week, that hasn't happened in quite a while. It's just that nothing spectacular has happened. And when it has, i haven't felt like writing about it. Ok, so some cool things have happened, but nothing life-changing.
I've been paid, for a start (hope nobody i owe money to reads this). It's strange to be employed by honest regularly-paying people for once, i'm not the slightest bit used to it. Especially if you consider that my other employer behaved like a total ass the other day because Pino hadn't found a place to park and had to block the way up to fore for a half-hour, screaming at him in public and totally ignoring me(which i don't have a problem about, since i'd been doing the same to him for a few months already). The same employer who once made a death threat to a family member of mine, which would not be unusual if it wasn't for the fact that the family member in question was our cat. (as i carefully omitted commenting on here, it was something too incredible to think about at the time). The same employer who i strongly suspect will no longer employing me next year just because we so often get on his nerves. Ah, but after all, he's the boss. He knows what's the right thing to do.
(Please note: i didn't mention any names. And i have several employers. All of this could apply to anybody. And i don't think it'll show up on google this time) (grin)
Was hijacked to Gorizia the other day, taken out to eat one of the most amazingly good Lubjanskas i'd ever had. Was in good company, too. And at the restaurant they even served my favourite home-brewed beer. Despite having to go to work the following morning, we all ended up in Gorizia Castle, dancing around at some student party. Eventually only got a couple hours' sleep, but managed to be quite productive at the office nonetheless.
My so-called brother who was visiting last week has finally gone back home. I was polite enough not to talk to him completely, apart from a couple of very brief small-talk sessions just to make my mother happy. Where i did have to bite my tongue every now and then, anyway. At one point he told me he would like to work in Chile. I was this close to suggesting a job selling babies in the black market, but then i remembered he has two daughters so it wouldn't have been very tactful.
And as i usually do with religious freaks, i kept quoting Yoda pretending it was confucius. They always fall for that. (Mental note: add Pai Mei to faux religious quote repertoire.)
Oh, and the day before he left a large amount of relatives came to visit, sensing it was a good moment. Oh yes, the moment my brother leaves is always one of the happiest in this household. (The little girls are nice though. Hope they're big enough to travel on their own soon, so they can leave the fat guy at home)
So at the moment this place is thriving with chileans, but they'll also be leaving in a while. And next week my parents leave, too. And ten minutes later, the party begins.
So what else have i been doing over the week? Well, as a matter of fact, a good 90% of my non-sleeping, non-office time has been taken up by reading the full archives of this fantastic webcomic. But that's something i'll devote another post to, this one's gone on too long. And to think that i just wanted to write "i'm still alive" and click on Publish Post...
While researching russian futurism independently, as my textbook seems to concentrate a bit too much on italian futurism only, i came across this accordion foldout designed by El Lissitzky for the Soviet Pavilion in the 1928 Cologne International Press Exhibition. Worth taking a look at.
(Link via Gmt945)
By way of Pino, another great commentary by Terry Jones.
WGD staff is now going off to work, regular blogging will resume tomorrow (if i haven't gone blind from all that editing documents in word format by then).
Wasn't going to post again tonight, but then Helen somehow convinced me to visit the website to Requiem For a Dream. Which turned out much to my surprise to be one of the best websites i've seen in years. Not without great effort, i managed to find out who had done the site, and the company responsible happened to be Hi-ReS Productions, whose official website is even better, and is the reason i'm writing this: everybody ought to go and take a look.
Oh, they're also responsible for this great little beatles animation, officially commissioned by Apple Corps themselves.
Enjoy.
So i haven't got much to say today, except that Microsoft Word is a computer program built in hell especially to torment my hard-working hours. But at least i get paid for it. And ok, i love the little chunk of otherwise useless code when special people send me beautiful letters in that format, but that's a completely different matter, and of no interest whatsoever to you. What you might instead find interesting, and i surely did, are these nice links that Drew and Mr. GmtPlusNine came up with, respectively: the first is a collection of fantastic music videos that just have to be seen, the second yet another cute design site i just can't stop ogling at. Enjoy, especially the first one.
Ok, now i can finally close those windows i've been keeping open for the past two hours.
Aaaah! Mosquitoes!!!
(um, sorry about that.)
(Or babelpesciu, as it is known in the vernacular):
Il nostro scopo è generare una Comunità esclusiva di P2P per le teste del metallo. Tramite accesso di limitazione possiamo accertarsi che la maggior parte delle lime comuni sia metallo orientato.
Italian Teste Di Metallo unite!
ok, haven't blogged in some days (but the comments boxes finally seem to be livening up), so i'll just insert some random thoughts. Don't complain, you don't have to pay for it.
-I'm listening to Jane Birkin's duet with Caetano Veloso on his song O Leaozinho. Must admit i expected better. The finger snaps are particularly irritating. Not to mention the casiotone arrangement.
-Blogger published a how-to-improve-your-blog's-appearance column the other day. I was almost expecting them to link to this page for an example of how bad an old template can look, to stimulate all users to update to better ones and not look this pathethic. Well, maybe they should've.
-Went to pick a forgotten sibling and two of his offspring at venice airport on sunday. Coincidentally, at the same time HotPoop was linking to the Dysfunctional Family Letter Generator. How appropriate.
-Terry Gilliam's new movie i'm looking so forward to, The Brothers Grimm, has apparently been further pushed back to a february, 2005 release. So sad.
-Have been obsessively downloading and watching Pizzicato Five(R.I.P.)'s videos from the nineties. It always shocks me how they can manage not to be the slightest bit kitsch by maintaining a strong self-irony in their clever retro stylings. Whatever that may mean. Oh, and i'm also developing a crush on their lead singer, Maki Nomiya. But that was inevitable, i guess.
-Pelo had a definitely absurd close encounter with the italian police force on election day. You can read about it here. Or here if you speak babelfinglish.
-My brother just came in making me lose my train of thought.
-Think i'll just go back to reading about why Anselm Kiefer doesn't consider Joseph Beuys a romantic. (By the way, Cat And Girl will be five years old next week! Huzzah!)
-Will post again as soon as i remember whatever else it was i wanted to write.
Just some little links, which i've already pointed out a fair amount of times but are nonetheless rather worthwile.
The first is to the latest Copper comic by Kazu Kibuishi. As of writing, he's switching most of his comics to another server, which is my excuse to link to this page today. And not just the fact that it's beautiful, and that more than one of my readers will relate to it rather strongly.
The next is to Drew Weing's homepage, which is interesting not only because of the new installment of his stunning comic Little Trees, not only because he finally decided to turn his main page into a blog which is regularly updated, but also for the large amount of photos of the anti-g8 demonstrations in Savannah, Georgia he's been posting these days. It's interesting to see an eyewitness point of view of what's going on, especially from someone i've read all the comics of(you can do it too, simply by clicking around his site.)
I know these are both pages i've linked to quite often, but today i thought they were more deserving of commentary than usual. And let's not forget that both artists are an immense source of inspiration for little ol'me.
Sidenote: evaristo is currently exploring the music of the eclectic brazilian singer, composer and instrumentalist known only as Joyce. Clicking here you can read what she has to say about herself.
Outside the bar, an unexpected topic came up.
"Oh, i saw your blog today. Nice pictures."
"How did you find it?" i immediately inquired. Not worried, just curious.
"I can't tell you", she replied.
"Oh...well, how did you like it?"
"Actually, i only looked at the pictures. Couldn't be bothered to read through it."
And then she added:
"The thing is, i've always thought that people who have blogs are just egomaniacs who write about themselves on the internet..."
I was amused to notice she made no effort whatsoever to point out any differences i may have from such a description.
"But when i get home next month, i'll build my own blog and it'll be extra-cool!" She finally concluded.
She's been home for some time already, but i still have no news of that last thing happening. If you're reading this, C, hurry the fuck up. Other friends of mine have been setting their own blogs up lately and making a definitely good job of it, too.
(The same young lady, later that same night, was overheard muttering to herself "Why, why do I always, always end up dancing with Robin???" I understood her discomfort and expressed solidarity on my own behalf.)
Anyone who's ever loved The Beatles ought to watch this animation in fullscreen.
(Come to think of it, does any of my readers not love The Beatles? None that i know about. Kinda makes me proud.)
The other day, Pino sent me a link to a little game, saying "here's a nice completely idiotic little flashgame". My retort was immediate: "Is there such a thing as a clever flashgame?" Interesting discussions ensued.
Well, this morning i actually came across a little game that can be described as not only nice, but also clever. Yes, it's actually just publicity for an album (The Polyphonic Spree's upcoming one, can't be bothered to look up the name right now), but it's a clever way of doing it, and rather pleasing to the eye.
As for the ears, well, i've heard a couple of songs of theirs and i must admit that they are a rather interesting act. However, what i've heard may be beautiful, but also fills me a nostalgic melancholia which borders too easily with pure sadness, so i tend to avoid them.
But the game's nice.
UPDATE: the nice little game just blocked halfway while loading the third level. And it won't reload. But it might not completely be it's own fault, since i'm also downloading a Mother of stuff with WinMX and BitTorrent at the same time...
And while we're at it, here's the view from my room, also ten minutes ago.
So i was watching the intro credits to Shaolin Soccer and for the first time i noticed that one of the actresses featured therein, the beautiful Karen Mok, a.k.a. Karen Morris, studied here in Duino some fifteen or twenty years ago. That's all, just a little bit of trivia you wouldn't have found anywhere else. (Hmm, i wonder if anybody would pay for her yearbook photo?)
But anyway, shouldn't i be studying? Oh, yes.
Don't really haveanything to say today, so instead i'll just link to Scott McCloud's wierd flipcards
...but my plan today was to start cleaning up my desk. Or at least making enough space for my books to lie there comfortably. And maybe, maybe even sitting down in front of them for a while.
To allow you to realize how unrealistic this is, here's a picture of my desk as of twenty minutes ago:
But i'll make it, eventually. Just don't be surprised if you don't hear from me in some time.
