Just my luck.

On the winamp: Desmond Dekker and The Specials - Teenage Ska

Why, oh why do i visit gmtplus9 regularly? If i hadn't gone there this morning, i wouldn't have known about this fantastic design book (featuring, among others, the beautiful meomi), nor would i have discovered this online italian artbookstore. This means more money saying bye-bye. And i still have to get myself that Jacques Tati 4DVD box...
Oh well, at least i got to visit some great japanese designer's websites!
(whoops, that last one was italian. So at least i'm not *completely* nippo-centrically linking today!)

On the Winamp now: EWF - September

Tired...

Spent the entire afternoon photocopying. Everybody and their sister wanted copies today. Almost spent eight whole hours in that little room!
So i'm off to bed. But first...

Today Pelo, inspired by my last post, tried to babelfish this blog.
Here's the result.

Fuckin' priceless!

Questions, questions...

Why did i feel the strong necessity of listening to something by Queen when i walked into my room this morning? Haven't listened to Queen in yonks. Nor do i own any of their albums. Lucky i had this mp3 handy.
(tnx to marok - sorry about that direct link. The things people do when your back's turned.)

Also, Pino just sent me over to this great site about...er...something. Haven't really understood it yet, but it is great.

But most of all, it is my pleasure to announce that my first radio broadcast will be on Wednesday, 21st of January at 22:00 hours GMT+1.
There's a great explanation of how to tune your winamp in over at RadioPhiga's official blogsite (by the way, i liked the old working title, RadioPorcoLibero better), but it's in italian. So here's a quick explanation of how to do it if you're of english habla.

1. Download Streamer.
3. Run Streamer.
4. You wait. Time passes.
5. Choose "radiophiga" from the list.
6. Enjoy!

(yes, i know i forgot point 2. Thing is, i only noticed this while typing up point 4. So i thought it fitting to leave things as they were.)

Ok, ok, i'll post a better explanation later. Or just babelfish the italian one.

I also *still* don't have a title for my show. Suggestions welcome.

Ok, finished voting for the bloggies, am sending my entries in. Good luck to all participants, hope my 150th of the final opinion didn't cause too much damage.

Was approached by a beautiful young lady at the bar last night. Truly gorgeous. We chatted for quite a while in a nice, relaxed manner. Meanwhile, the little devil on my right shoulder kept screaming "Dance with her! C'mon, there's great music on!", and the little angel on the other shoulder was shouting "Buy her a drink! Buy her a bottle of something! Take her out for a walk by the beach!".
I did none of these things, i was too busy repeating to myself that
she's
too
young.

After all, she *was* some 7 or 8 years younger than me. And looked her age, too.

So this morning she passes by and says hello while i was saying goodbye to janos, who came to visit for a few days before going to live in London.

Me: "Do you think she's too young?"
Him: "Man, is she legal?"
Me: "could be... Yeah, i guess so."
Him: "Then go for it.*"

It's good to have friends who are honest. Honest bastards, too.
Anyway, i just checked. She'll be seventeen next month.
Which, if i were to insist on this business, would only stretch further my already almost nonexistent idea of "legal".

Er...lucky nothing happened. And probably never will.
Phew!

*Translation: stop wasting my time with these stupid, stupid questions.

Amazing...

Robert Fripp has a Blog???

Also, while voting, came across one site, gave it a quick look, read some content, and eventually discarded it because "Ugh! This one almost sucks as much as mine!"

huh?

Found this quiz on one of the bloggie candidate sites.
Took the test, answered rather honestly, here's the results:

35%

There's a 35% chance that I'll win a Bloggie™.
What's Your Chance to Win a Bloggie™?

The blogger i found the link from had only gotten 10%.
Yeah, right.

So, What's Your Father Up To These Days?

...which is one of my Frequently Asked Questions. I'll be answering to the other ones *soon*, i.e. "when did you last cut your hair?", "what's with the Duck?" and "who the hell are you anyway?".

So anyway, these days he's working on one book about Tsunamis, to finance his Magnum Opus.

And every day, at around half past ten, he goes out to have coffee in College Staff Room.

He doesn't like coffee.

He just wants to annoy the administration.

So some mornings i wake up singing Wonderful Wino under the shower. And then i go to the PC and play the Swiss Cheese/Fire! Montreux live '71 Mothers bootleg. And then i start to do all of Aynsley's drum parts with two fingers on my keyboard's desk. And if then the fire hadn't broken out, i'd never manage to get any work done.



So why did i wake up singing that song anyway? Well, there's a parallel to the answer to that question over on one of my daily guilty pleasures. So basically, the second half of a bottle of whiskey, 2 bottles of red wine, one of cheap white fizzy wine, one bottle of Pampero and one of Absolut that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere all helped me feel happy when i woke up this morning.

That's it, now i go off to find out whatever happened to the other people who were with me last night.

...and finally...

Another old friend of mine is now blogging! She's in dolce attesa as they say around here, which in english means something like "she's got a baby inside her belly". It's bound to pop out sometime around the end of January. Which is good, because if it were only a week or two later, the poor thing would've risked being born on the same day i did. Which wouldn't be a very good start.

Oh, and the proud mummy-to-be, whom we all know(and love) as Churra, also just posted something about my current military problems...permalink here! (i might post the same thing in english one of these days, it's...interesting.)

Speaking of births, The Official Pogo Site is online starting..today! Go There Now!

And one last thing... how would i love to own one of these...

Don't forget to[register to] vote!

New poll is up. Scroll down (confusing isn't it?) to vote!
A little explanation about this one's topic. The options are three albums i've always owned more than once for short periods, listened to, loved memorized inside my head(where else?), but then either lost or given back to the original owner or even, in some cases, given away to close friends.
But now it's about time i had my own copies. So you'll be helping me choose which one'll be the first!

Actually, the same thing usually happens to me with books. My two favorite books are Queneau's Les Fleurs Bleues and Cortazar's Historias De Cronopios Y De Famas (there goes blogger's spellchecker). All of my closest friends own at least one of these books because they're the ideal presents for the people i love, it's as if i was giving away a part of myself. But i've only had my real personal copy of the first one for a year or so, and still don't own a copy of the second one.

In an ideal world, i would eventually meet a girl who, after going out with me for some time, would give me a little packet saying "here, i wanted to give you a present: a copy of my favorite book". And i would open the packet, and out pops Historias De Cronopios Y De Famas.

Hey, i can dream, can't i?

In the real world, the packet would probably contain some book like "5000 reasons why you suck and i'm breaking up with you".

It's a miracle i'm still alive...

Do you know what it's like when you've studied too long?
After some 6 hours in the library(that's where i've been hiding most of the time these days), my brain had become a rather unappealing blob of goo. Which is also its usual configuration, but that's not relevant to today's story.
So when you're in such a state, it sometimes happens that you say things without filtering your ideas through your brain. Which is when you usually accidentally tell people you respect to shut up, people you love to buzz off, or just plain start speaking nonsense.
It was the beginning of my 6th hour of renaissance painters. Pictures of Michelangelo Sistine Chapel in front of me. Inbetween, an etching showing what it looked like before the man leaned his brushes against it.

"Liked it better before", i muttered to myself.

Then i realized what i had just said and was attacked by the forty-foot-tall Art Student Guilt. THANK GOD nobody heard me. THANK GOD i didn't *really* mean it. And most of all, THANK GOD i wasn't struck by lightning for uttering such blasphemies.

I was so guilty afterwards, it felt as if i'd just kissed my little sister or something.

Lucky nobody'll ever find out. Except for the whole world, since i'm stupid enough to write about it on my blog.
At least my teacher doesn't read this. I hope...(shivers)

And Then Some

First things first: the Barbapapa quiz. Nobody bothered to answer, therefore all regular readers can now proudly declare to the person closest to them, in ALL CAPS, "I AM NOT A GEEK". Offer void where prohibited.
Anyway, the early Elio E Le Storie Tese song which incorporated parts of the old italian theme to the barbapapa cartoon, originally sung by reknowned songwriter Roberto Vecchioni (who probably needed the money to pay Andrea Pazienza for those beautiful album covers), was Pork E Cindy, which was eventually resurrected on their second album.
Won't Go Down: We're All About The Edutainment.

Second: i'm one of the 150 voters on the panel to choose the finalists of the Weblog Awards(TM). Of course i can't reveal the sites i have to choose from, it's just good to know that some of my favourites are in there somewhere. Not necessarily ones i link to, though.(Phew!)
Won't Go Down: We're All About the Bribes. Huh? What?

Third: keep your eyes and ears open, 'cause one of these days i'll be debuting as deejay of my very own show on RadioPhiga, a webradio recently set up by some old buddies of mine. Maybe even tonight, if i manage to study enough in the afternoon. And if anyone of them manages to explain how i'm supposed to do it. But whenever it happens, it's gonna be cool.

Fourth: new poll! Look for it later today.
Hey! i just went over 500 visitors! Something must be wrong, there's not supposed to be that many. A big hand to that 5% who uses a Mac! Go Mac! And a kiss and a hug to that 8% visiting from Estonia. You know who you are. So do i, of course.
Won't Go Down: We're All About Your Privacy!

Finally: thanks to all those who called, contacted or emailed me about my recent military service troubles. No significant updates on this topic yet, but i have to say that one the most helpful things these days has been receiving so much solidarity. Now bugger off, i have a pizza to eat.


(PS: while imagegoogling for those Pazienza covers, i came across this image. Not for the squeamish)

a cat.

Site about a cat. Loved it. "Stealth" is particularly enthralling.
(Tnx to Pino)

claim to fame

So i got quoted on one of my favourite blogs. Cool!
I feel so professional now.

When the universe is expanding it can make you late for work

Woody Allen's universe is in constant expansion. Oh! Hey! So's mine!

Pictures of people washing their teeth

It's a way of life!
(Link courtesy of JJFlash)

I wonder how many confused atlantan Zappa fans accidentally showed up at This Party...

Illustrations by Franco Matticchio

Here.

I once found a beautiful book by Matticchio at an outdoor book fair. It was also extremely cheap, which made my find even more exciting. I read the book, called SensaSenso, and enjoyed it so much i felt i just *had* to lend it to this good friend of mine.
I lend it,
She loves it,
One month later, i show up at her place for a chat, and at some point remember that book and ask for it back.
"...But i thought it was a present..." she answers, with gigantic manga-esque puppy eyes.

So i gave it to her.

I'm so vulnerable to this kind of thing.

(That bitch.)

A Foreign Sound

...is the title of Caetano Veloso's next LP (does anyone other than me still call them like that?), a long awaited tribute to great english-speaking singers and songwriters.
Unfortunately, this album will only be published in March, 2004.
However, we at WGD Central have the skinny on Caetano's December shows, which previewed future tracks from the album to small audiences.
...Apparently, Google has no non-portuguese data on these. So Yours Truly is proudly first to relate on this in Shakespeare's English(well, almost).
In these intimate gigs, the 61-year old Brazilian Songwriter was accompanied by his son Moreno(Cello, Percussion), Domenico Lancelotti(Drums), Pedro Sà(Electric guitar), who by the way are the full lineup of Moreno's own band Moreno+2, and veteran Jorge Helder on the upright acoustic bass.

The songs:
(in what little order i've managed to understand from my extensive- ha, ha -Google search)

Nao Tem Traduçao (Noel Rosa)
So In Love (Porter)
I Only Have Eyes For You (Warren/Dubin)
Stardust (Hoagy Carmichael)
Nature Boy (Ahbez)
Come As You Are (Cobain/Nirvana)
Summertime (Gershwin)
Love For Sale (Porter)
Cry Me A River (Hamilton)
Baby/Diana (Veloso, Anka)
Body And Soul (Green)
Sophisticated Lady (Ellington)
Sampa (Veloso)
Cuccurruccuccu Paloma (Mendez)
Diferentemente (Veloso)

--encores--

The Carioca (Carmen Miranda)
Love Me Tender (Presley)
As Time Goes By (Hupfeld)

Authors - or most reknowned performers- indicated between brackets, within the limits of my own ignorance. Any corrections are well accepted.

The only new song performed was Diferentemente, a Samba-Cançao admittedly only written six days earlier. A song which begins quoting Madonna, of all people, and later includes the verses "Diferentemente de Osama e Condoleezza/ Eu não acredito em Deus".
"Unlike Osama and Condoleeza, i don't believe in God"

Still the Caetano we've always known and loved.

The songs performed are only a few of the 26 already recorded for the A Foreign Sound project.
It'll certainly be a long wait until March.