Friday 30 November 2007

Stop me

Stop me, oh
oh oh stop me
Stop me if you think that you've
heard this one before
Stop me, oh
oh oh stop me
Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before

Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh
I still love you
only slightly, only slightly
less
than I used to
my love

It took Mark Ronson's mix to appreciate this ols Smiths classic and the awsome lyrics. Only it's not the lyrics as a whole, it is the lyrics as fragmented parts of a sentence 'I still love you-only slightly-less-than I used to'. Every word is another story, every little syllable might change your world.

Thursday 22 November 2007

Blogging makes me think

I was coming home from work today and I was thinking of what I could write in the blog when it hit me: I can be ultra self-indulging (or just reflective?) and write about blogging itself. A movie within a movie (Almodovar), a dream within a dream (dreadzone), a novel within a novel (blind assasin) and now a blog within a blog (lady v). How cool is that?

So, the issue is that if I didn't have the blog, I would not be forcing myself to think about things. Sometimes life is just hectic (clishé but oh so true) that if nobody forced you, you would only think about your work, your boyfriend, your problems and so on. But having a nice little place that can host your thoughts and your (real or imaginary) audience, makes you reflect on yourself more and ask: which of my thoughts are worth mentioning? Perhaps other people (philosophers perhaps? :) ) are more reflective than me, but I can easily sink in stupidity and routine and forget about such things.

So what is my clever thought of the day? This entry.
And some other stuff about covers (song covers) that I will write on another time.

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Is this a poem?

In the station of the metro

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound

My old literature teacher in the University had asked us this question, is this a poem? Back then, with the arrogance and ignorance of my eighteen years, I had answered no. I had said that this is like a photograph, a nice image, a slice of reality. But that is not a poem.

Now I am not sure at all. It is funny how some things just persevere in your memory and you know that you have an unfinished business with them, so you keep thinking about them. This is one of those things. I was never sure about my answer and as years went by, I felt even keener to answer the opposite. Maybe I now appreciate poignant, sharp depictions of reality, even if they look like literary photographs, compared to the complexity of longer pieces of literature. One-liners have this quality of being 'to the point'. Think about it, is there a better way of visualising loneliness other than ''... the autumn leaves drift by my window''?

Tuesday 13 November 2007

The silence

Maybe I liked the previous post too much and I just wanted to leave it here for as long as I could.

Maybe I am again busy and tired.

Maybe my boyfriend is here and I just don't have time for this blog.

Maybe it just takes some time to think of things properly and even more write about them.

I wish I could write cute, one-line posts that say something, but I can't...

Forthcoming: modern day fairytales from Pixar to Harry Potter and Miyazaki.

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Ode to Christina


It is difficult to express my love and admiration to the same people again and again. Especially to those who have been knowing me for ages. Every year I have to deal with birthdays (and namedays for Greek friends), think of something nice to buy and write on a card and try to make the day somehow special. Celebrations and all this kind of "lets get all together and party" have not been my favourite time of the year, mainly due to the fact that it has never been a big deal in my family.

I know somebody who loves to celebrate. She loves to have all the attention around, she likes to get all sort of gifts, answer the telephone immediately and have something different to say to the ones at the other end of the line and can not wait for the next year to come to enjoy another celebration day. How cool is this.. ? I wish I could experience it the way she does. I am learning though... watching her doing the things that she does. The "celebration reaction" is only an example. I have many things to learn from her, because she is the kind of person who gives and shares. That is the main characteristic of a good friend, someone can argue. I have few friends, not all of them share. Neither their knowledge covers all the aspects of life. She, on the other hand, knows everything: politics, music, theatre, history, mythology (that's her asset!), cooking, shopping, driving, watching tv, playing backgammon, dancing flamengo, name it and she can do it! She is not very good in bargaining though... (not a great shopping partner if you wish to go to Morocco). Apart from that, she has a very rich personality and believe me that makes it difficult to argue with her as she is (almost) always right. Besides of all these symptoms, and many more what will be revealed in due time, I think she is great and I truly love her.
Happy birthday!
Hope this day is special for you!

Sunday 4 November 2007

Now I'm in love...

So, I thought I knew a thing or two about music, right? Wrong, very wrong... Beacause it took me 7 months, since it was first released in April, to get Mark Ronson. And man, have I been missing all this time... For whoever does not know him, check him out on youtube and his site (http://www.markronson.co.uk/frontpage) and tell me what you think.

I won't write much now as I just bought the album on amazon, so I'll wait to be professional and hear it all closely before I write my bloggie. But there is one thing that amazed me: his newness. His album 'version' is obviously a re-working of old tracks. The burning question with such things is how to be able to make the song sound both 'utterly modern and comfortably familiar' as guardian put it. For me, song re-working needs to have another aspect as well: it needs to bring out a new aspect of the song that was not present in the first version. You need to hear it and say: oh I didn't think this song could be done/heard like that. And this is exactly what he does. Compare his recent single 'Valerie' featuring Amy Winehouse to the original version by the Zutons. It is not a case of a better vs. a worse version. It's just so different, so fresh (and exciting) so ... cool.

I shall definately return on the issue, but only after I stop singing: 'Oh Wont You Come On Over, Stop Making A Fool Out Of Me, Why Dont You Come On Over, Valerie, Valeriiiieeeeee'

Thursday 1 November 2007

I am tired-Crap TV




Remember I said I will not get personal in the blog? Well, scrap that (again).
I just wanted to write I am tired. I am very tired the whole week and now it is almost over so I am happy.
I have applied to two more jobs and I have been teaching like crazy and now all I want to do is go home and watch TV.

Speaking of which....
They have this awsome new thing in the UK called 'no brainer TV'... How acurate. It includes gems like relity shows where older and younger women compete with each other to get a guy and stuff like that... How sick is that? But then again I am so over it these days, my guilt of watching shit TV that is. I used to feel that my intellect would be compromised if people knew I watch X factor and America's next top model. But I really don't care anymore. This doesn't define me. Or it does but only in addition to all the other things I do. So I am not feeling bad about it anymore. There was this piece in a newspaper, I don't remember which one now, where intellectual people would tell of their 'guilty pleasures'. People said stuff like picking their noses and going around the house naked when they people can see them and eating chocolate. One said watching America's next top model. That made me so happy! I felt that suddenly that all this watching stupid TV totally deflated in my mind. My only problem is when I try to explain to myself what I like in these shows. Because the cannibalism of peoples' dreams is trully awful. I almost don't approve of anything these shows stand for actually, but I still like them...

Maybe it truly is this 'no brainer' thing... Who cares?
Sorry, I have to go, it starts in a while.