Global Smurf Day

Woke up feeling rather blue today...

Smurf long & prosper.

:-)

Mari's Affirmation

‎"Kindness:

In order to be kind you must open your heart to the gentle qualities of caring and compassion.

Be kind to yourself. Have reasonable expectations and give yourself the praise. In order to nurture the gentle quality of kindness, cherish yourself.

When you do something for yourself, you automatically extend that same energy to others.

Kindness melts barriers of ice around people and re-empowers those who are afraid (even if they don't show it immediately!). So reach out to the lonely, draw out the shy, include those who feel isolated and comfort the sad.

Your rewards will be a sense of inner peace, warmth and love.

AFFIRMATION

I am kind to myself and others.

At the end of the day, the journey is about being true to ourselves."

Thank you Mari for the wonderful words that came to you (and to me) right when they should.

Hot

I am hot.

Not HOT as in "wow you're HOT! Please donate me your genes!" - hot.

Temperature-wise hot.

And no, I'm not sick.

And by sick I mean ill, not sick as in "cool" or as in "this dance routine is sick!"

I'm neither sick nor "sick".

Or HOT!

Ahem.

This is getting complicated.

*sigh*
.
.
.
And by *sigh* I mean *sigh*

"Part of Your World" - Cover by Darren Criss

Just A Kiss, Dear Glee...?

"There is a moment, when you say to yourself, Oh there you are! I've been looking for you forever!"...

THE WATERBOYS - Don't Bang The Drum

well here we are,
in a special place,
what are you gonna do here?

now we stand
in a special place,
what will you do here?

but if I know you,
you'll bang the drum
like monkeys do.

Περιμένοντας τους Bαρβάρους/ Κ. Π. Καβάφης - Waiting for the Barbarians/C.P.Cavafy

Περιμένοντας τους Bαρβάρους

 — Τι περιμένουμε στην αγορά συναθροισμένοι;

        Είναι οι βάρβαροι να φθάσουν σήμερα.

— Γιατί μέσα στην Σύγκλητο μια τέτοια απραξία;
  Τι κάθοντ’ οι Συγκλητικοί και δεν νομοθετούνε;

        Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα.
        Τι νόμους πια θα κάμουν οι Συγκλητικοί;
        Οι βάρβαροι σαν έλθουν θα νομοθετήσουν.

—Γιατί ο αυτοκράτωρ μας τόσο πρωί σηκώθη,
 και κάθεται στης πόλεως την πιο μεγάλη πύλη
 στον θρόνο επάνω, επίσημος, φορώντας την κορώνα;

        Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα.
        Κι ο αυτοκράτωρ περιμένει να δεχθεί
        τον αρχηγό τους. Μάλιστα ετοίμασε
        για να τον δώσει μια περγαμηνή. Εκεί
        τον έγραψε τίτλους πολλούς κι ονόματα.

— Γιατί οι δυο μας ύπατοι κ’ οι πραίτορες εβγήκαν
 σήμερα με τες κόκκινες, τες κεντημένες τόγες·
 γιατί βραχιόλια φόρεσαν με τόσους αμεθύστους,
 και δαχτυλίδια με λαμπρά, γυαλιστερά σμαράγδια·
 γιατί να πιάσουν σήμερα πολύτιμα μπαστούνια
 μ’ ασήμια και μαλάματα έκτακτα σκαλιγμένα;

        Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα·
        και τέτοια πράγματα θαμπώνουν τους βαρβάρους.

 —Γιατί κ’ οι άξιοι ρήτορες δεν έρχονται σαν πάντα
 να βγάλουνε τους λόγους τους, να πούνε τα δικά τους;

        Γιατί οι βάρβαροι θα φθάσουν σήμερα·
        κι αυτοί βαρυούντ’ ευφράδειες και δημηγορίες.

— Γιατί ν’ αρχίσει μονομιάς αυτή η ανησυχία
 κ’ η σύγχυσις. (Τα πρόσωπα τι σοβαρά που εγίναν).
 Γιατί αδειάζουν γρήγορα οι δρόμοι κ’ η πλατέες,
 κι όλοι γυρνούν στα σπίτια τους πολύ συλλογισμένοι;

        Γιατί ενύχτωσε κ’ οι βάρβαροι δεν ήλθαν.
        Και μερικοί έφθασαν απ’ τα σύνορα,
        και είπανε πως βάρβαροι πια δεν υπάρχουν.
                                __

 Και τώρα τι θα γένουμε χωρίς βαρβάρους.
 Οι άνθρωποι αυτοί ήσαν μια κάποια λύσις.

(Από τα Ποιήματα 1897-1933, Ίκαρος 1984)


Waiting for the Barbarians

By Constantine Cavafy (1864-1933), translated by Edmund Keeley

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?

They were, those people, a kind of solution.

εσένα σε ξέρω. εμένα; (official HD trailer)

This is a trailer I directed for a a theatrical-play. The play is all about a guy who comes into a violent conflict with his brain/mind and they fight until one of them commits suicide. Pretty pleasant stuff :-)



And this is the alternate version (colour-wise).

Galt MacDermot - Coffee Cold

There is a sensual river oozing out of this song, so humid and ethereal, that turns every dirty thought into a blazing solitary pilgrimage on bodily sights unseen. Goodnight.

The Duel - Electric Dreams Movie

This scene from a very old movie (I was around 8 or so when it came out) is one of my favourites. The flirtation between the two characters (Madeline & Edgar), incorporates so much "electricity" (pardon the pun), much like the sparks that flash between two people, moments before, during and right after their first ever kiss :-)

I adore it.

Adele - I Found A Boy

Wow

How can you describe that which you cannot even define?

A sense of warped deja vu, where everything falls into familiar place, yet everything seems strangely fresh and as if like seen from an original perspective.

The furniture in that old childhood room that you revisit, where you can obviously accept the passing of time, yet your gut screams out loud in favour of that same old familiarity that has transformed the essence of your memory, into something new, which only now do you begin to accept and appreciate as innovative. To you, everything (though slightly changed) is still in place. Where it should be.

I doubt if I am making any sense, again.

Where I'm getting at, is the question of how you manage to recognise whether a beautiful sentiment is only just that, or whether it stands guard in front of a deeper path unfolding before your very eyes, enveloping your whole being as it does so, and convincing you to look away, while it's preparing its onslaught towards rendering you defenceless in a matter of days...

Beautiful.

Nuff said.

Baby Penguin Tickled

I could die just watching this :-)))