Mostly Music
sexta-feira, novembro 29
quarta-feira, novembro 27
JOSÉ MARIA NEVES
Today when I got to Uni-Rio I was greeted by bad news. José Maria Neves, my professor, my advisor, my friend, had died this morning. He was not sixty yet. It is hard to believe both facts: that he is dead, and that he was so young. Not because he seemed older, quite the contrary. He was a handsome man, always well-dressed, with a straight back, a brisk walk and a wonderful mellow voice. But he accomplished so much, he was so wise and so secure of his own worth, that to me he seemed older. I was his student in Uni-Rio, more than twenty years ago. We frequently had classes over a glass of beer, in the Bar da Praia, right next to the university (our class was quite small). And even in that informal setting, he managed to teach us a lot, and communicate his passion for music, at the same time keeping us at a certain distance. I felt he was my friend, and yet I knew nothing of his personal life (not a very Brazilian thing...). He never had a harsh word for me, and he always managed to be fair but encouraging. A charming lecturer and a brilliant conversationalist, he was a pleasure to talk to, and he made us all proud. Our emeritus professor would be an asset to any first world university!
It is weird to speak of him in the past tense. I will miss him a lot.
terça-feira, novembro 26
MY DAY (or: Is it soft or do you want more?)
5:00 wake up and try to wake Manoela up
Go back to sleep
5:40 wake up and try to wake Manoela up
Try to go back to sleep
6:30 Finally manage to wake Ma up
Try to go back to sleep
7:00 Go kiss the girls good-bye
Try to go back to sleep
8:00 Antonia wakes me up: dentist's time!
But she has it wrong. She is one hour too early
Try to go back to sleep
9:00 Wake up! Dentist! Have breakfast, get dressed.
When I am ready, the dentist calls: would I mind postponing my appointment for one hour?
I decide to take the discman (thanks, Tom!), so I can listen to the CD I have to review for Fanfare. After the second track the batteries die on me.
At the dentist's office; she is late. I have to wait for 40 ms. Can't even read the magazines, as I forgot my reading glasses.
Finally in the dentist's chair. It hurts.
I get out of there late, since I have a student at 1:00.
Take a cab, to try to get home on time. The air conditioner on the car is broken, the driver lies to me about it.
Big traffic jam. Hot as hell. No air conditioning. Can't call and warn my student that I'll be late, because I forgot the cell phone at home.
Get home, student is there already. No time to eat. And I am starving!
Stress: the girls don't want to go to English class, I make them go. They leave mad at me. As soon as they are out, the sky falls on Rio. Rain. Cats and dogs. The girls are wearing sandals. I worry.
The doorman calls. Some problem with the elevator, it is not working.
The girls arrive soaking wet and have to go up 6 flights of stairs.
Ju forgot to return the video tape she rented yesterday.
My computer eats the text I am working on.
The 3 phones ring at the same time.
My credit card bill arrives.
I lose my phone book.
Júlia tells me she spent R$ 100 on the weekend she was alone.
My contact lenses are hurting my eyes.
My nose is clogged up.
I write about it on the blog, but my post disappears forever. God won't even let me to complain.
I WANT TO SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spell Checker Poem
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.
-Sauce unknown
quinta-feira, novembro 21
A QUESTION TO OUR READERS:
Tom disse que eu ia corrigir o português dele. mas não sei, estou achando engraçadinho. (Com exceção do "Saite", muito feio! Tom, Site is site....). Talvez apenas acrescentar os acentos.
What do you guys think? Should I correct the mistakes or not?
segunda-feira, novembro 18
And I thought I was absent-minded
O.J. No Longer ’100 Percent Sure’ He is Innocent
Calls Johnnie Cochran’s recent statements ‘thought provoking’
Oct. 16 — Days after former O. J. Simpson defense attorney Johnnie Cochran said on MSNBC that he is “about 90 percent” certain that his client was innocent, Mr. Simpson today said that his attorney had planted “fresh seeds of doubt” in his own mind.
“FOR YEARS, I’VE BEEN pretty sure that I did not murder my wife,” Simpson said today at a golf course in Boca Raton, Fla., where he was taking a rare break from searching for the real killers of his wife. “But if Johnnie’s not 100 percent sure, I’m like, hey, maybe I better take another look at this.”
Simpson added that it would be “crazy” not to be swayed by Cochran’s new statements, which he called “thought provoking.”
“Look, you’re talking about a guy, Johnnie Cochran, who is a pretty smart guy,” Simpson said. “If he said maybe I did it, then maybe I did it.”
Cochran’s doubts about Simpson’s innocence may help resolve one lingering mystery for the former Heisman Trophy winner: why it has been so difficult for him to find his wife’s real killers, whom he pledged to hunt down after his acquittal in 1995.
The former NFL star said that, in light of the new revelations, he may slow down his search, which he said has occupied almost every waking moment of his life for the past seven years.
“If it turns out that I’m actually the one who did it, then looking for the real killers would be a big old waste of time,” Simpson said.
Newsweek © 2002
quinta-feira, novembro 14
I GOT THIS ONE FROM ED...
Four Jewish brothers left home for college, became doctors and prospered.
Some years later, chatting after a Chanukah dinner, they discussed the gifts that they were able to give to their elderly mother.
The first said, "I had a big house built for Mama."
The second said, "I had a hundred thousand dollar theater built in the house."
The third said, "I had my Mercedes dealer deliver her an SL600 with a chauffeur."
The fourth said, "Listen to this. You know how Mama loves reading the Torah and you know she can't see very well. I sent her a parrot that can recite the entire Torah. It took twenty rabbis 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000 a year for twenty years but it was worth it. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it."
Soon thereafter, Mom sent out her Thank You notes.
She wrote: "Milton, the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks so much."
"Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home, I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes...and the driver is a Nazi. A
million thanks."
"Menachim, you give me a theater with Dolby sound, it could hold 50 people, but all my friends are dead, I've lost my hearing and I'm nearly blind. Thanks anyway."
"Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift. Such a delicious chicken."
