Sane Inside Insanity: MY KITCHEN, 1940

mercoledì, ottobre 20, 2010

MY KITCHEN, 1940

Ho tirato giù tutta la mia collezione di bottiglie di birra per pulire e rinforzare i ripiani. Ne ho approfittato per dividerle in base alla nazione, onde farne un catalogo, prima o poi. E' un casino perché non so dove metterle, e allo stesso tempo devo tenerle separate. Quindi al momento la mia cucina ha questo aspetto:

- La Germania domina da sopra la lavapiatti.

- Le Isole Britanniche sono a terra, accanto a un nutrito contingente dalla Danimarca (la Ceres).

- Il resto del mondo (USA, Messico, Cina etc), sta a guardare dal tavolo; ma fra loro il Giappone trama nell'ombra.

- La Francia è sparita. Temo che quelle poche bottiglie siano state inglobate dalle dozzine di bottiglie tedesche.

L'unico elemento che non quadra con l'Europa 1940 è il Belgio. Una forza temibile, quasi numerosa come i tedeschi, osserva minacciosa la Germania dal ripiano di fronte alla lavapiatti. Ispirazione per un romanzo di storia alternativa?

Completamente sclerata. Ho visto troppe bottiglie di birra. Ho anche composto una canzone su di loro, con l'aiuto di Umberto Tozzi. Si chiama Stella Artois.

I've taken down my whole collection of beer bottles to clean and fix the shelves. I've seized the chance to sort them by nation, in order to make a catalog sometimes. It's messy because I don't know where to put them, and at the same time I need to keep them separated. So my kitchen currently looks like this:

- Germany dominates from the top of the dishwasher.

- The British Isles are on the floor, next to a sizable contingent from Denmark (Ceres).

- The rest of the world (USA, Mexico, China etc), on the table, looks on; but Japan lurks among them.

- France has disappeared. I fear those few bottles have been absorbed by the scores of German bottles.

The only element that doesn't fit with Europe 1940 is Belgium. A formidable force, almost as numerous as Germany, watches the Germans threateningly from the sideboard in front of the dishwasher. Inspiration for an alternate history novel?

Utterly bonkers. I've seen too many beer bottles. I've also composed a song about it, with the help of Umberto Tozzi. It's called Stella Artois.

Stai
Stella Artois su di me
Questa notte su di me
Stella Artois stella tu
Per sospirarti di più
Per sospirarti di blu...

QUOTES

Heart shall be bolder,
harder be purpose,
more proud the spirit
as our power lessens!
Mind shall not falter
nor mood waver,
though doom shall come
and dark conquer.
(The Battle of Maeldon, translated by Tolkien)

He who has a treasure, or a demon in his heart, cannot hide it. (King Theodoric the Great)

I' mi son un che, quando
Amor mi spira, noto, e a quel modo
ch'e' ditta dentro vo significando.
(Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio)

The lambs will stop for now. But, Clarice, you judge yourself with all the mercy of the dungeon scales at Threave; you'll have to earn it again and again, the blessed silence. Because it's the plight that drives you, seeing the plight, and the plight will not end, ever. (Hannibal Lecter)

Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai 'Ngaje Ngai', the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude. (Ernest Hemingway)

Would I embarrass you? Yes, it is possible. You see, I... I am crazy. I take the newer medications, but I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I choose not to indulge certain appetites. Like my appetite for patterns. Perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream. (A Beautiful Mind)

Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands,
father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold,
the light that brings the dawn,
the horn that wakes the sleepers,
the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night Watch
for this night and all the nights to come.
(GRRM)

Never criticize a person until you walk a mile in their shoes (Atticus Finch)

A warrior for peace is no less a warrior (General Korrd, unwittingly reminding of Yitzhak Rabin)

What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed? Only innocent lives, Peter. (Sirius Black)

Whatever makes a soldier sad will make a killer smile (Leonard Cohen)

I'm rightly tired of the pain I hear and feel, boss. I'm tired of bein on the road, lonely as a robin in the rain. Not never havin no buddy to go on with or tell me where we's comin from or goin to or why. I'm tired of people bein ugly to each other. It feels like pieces of glass in my head. I'm tired of all the times I've wanted to help and couldn't. I'm tired of bein in the dark. Mostly it's the pain. There's too much. If I could end it, I would. But I can't. (John Coffey)

Oh, life! 'tis in an hour like this, with soul beat down and held to knowledge, - as wild, untutored things are forced to feel - Oh, life! 'tis now that I do feel the latent horror in thee! but 'tis not me! that horror's out of me! and with the soft feeling of the human in me, yet will I try to fight ye, ye grim, phantom futures! (Starbuck)

I have dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind. (Charlotte Bronte)

If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me? (Karen Blixen)

Do not you recognize me, Dumas? I am the rearguard of the Grande Armee. I have stood at Kovno, and thrown the last muskets in the Niemen. I am Marshal Ney. Give me a bowl of soup. (Attributed to Michel Ney).