Κυριακή 31 Μαρτίου 2013

Τριαντακόντοροι Νήες - αναπαράσταση - Triantaconter (with 30 Oars ) Ships


English translation follows

Πρόκειται για ταχύπλοο πολεμικό κωπήλατο πλοίο με μια σειρά από 15 κουπιά σε κάθε πλευρά του. Ήταν μακρόστενο για την ανάπτυξη των 30 κωπηλατών, με ρηχή καρίνα και εξαιρετικά πιο ευέλικτο και ταχύτερο από τα αντίστοιχα «στρογγυλά» εμπορικά πλοία. Χρησιμοποιήθηκε ευρέως από τους Μυκηναίους και πρωτοαναφέρεται από τον Όμηρο ως το κύριο πλοίο του Τρωικού πολέμου. Τα κουπιά δένονταν με θηλιές στους σκαλμούς της κουπαστής και οι κωπηλάτες κάθονταν σε απόσταση 80 εκατοστών από αυτήν ώστε να εξασφαλίζεται η απαιτούμενη ροπή. Ως πηδάλιο χρησιμοποιούνταν τα δύο μεγάλα κουπιά της πρύμνης. Στην πλώρη έφερε ένα μεγάλο έμβολο επενδυμένο με ορείχαλκο για τον εμβολισμό των αντίπαλων πλοίων. Επικουρικά διέθετε ένα μεγάλο τετράγωνο ιστίο. Το μήκος και το πλάτος της έφθαναν τα 25 και τα 4,5 μέτρα αντίστοιχα. Δεν έφερε κύριο κατάστρωμα αλλά δύο ακραία (στην πλώρη και στην πρύμνη).
ΠΗΓΕΣ: «Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Εκδοτική Αθηνών», «Δεληγιάννης Περικλής, Ναυτική Ιστορία», «Όμηρος, Ιλιάς», «Αιλιανός ο Τακτικός, Τακτική θεωρία».
http://www.kotsanas.gr/gr/1901003/index.php

It was a high speed oared warship with one row of 15 oars on each side. It was oblong for the placement of 30 oarsmen, with a shallow keel and exceptionally more versatile and faster than the equivalent "round" commercial ships. It was widely used by the Mycenaeans and first referred to by Homer as the main ship in the Trojan War. The oars were tied with loops to the oarlocks of the gunwale and the oarsmen sat at a distance of 80 cm from this so that it ensured the required torque. For steering, they used the two big oars of the stern. In the prow it brought a large bronze coated ram for the ramming of rival ships. Complementarily, it had a large square sail. The length and width reached 25 and 4,5 metres respectively. It did not have a main deck but two side ones (in the prow and in the stern).
SOURCES: "The History of the Greek Nation, Ekdotiki Athens", "Deligiannis Pericles, Naval History", "Homer, Iliad", "Aelianos Taktikos, Tactic theory".
http://www.kotsanas.gr/gb/index.html

«Ποιήματα» του Κωνσταντίνου Καβάφη. Δωρεάν e-book με ελεύθερη διανομή

Ιθάκη, Θερμοπύλες, Περιμένοντας τους Βαρβάρους, Απολείπειν ο Θεός Αντώνιον και άλλα 150 ποιήματα του Κωνσταντίνου Καβάφη (1863, Αλεξάνδρεια).
Αυτοβιογραφικό σημείωμα
«Είμαι Κωνσταντινουπολίτης την καταγωγήν, αλλά εγεννήθηκα στην Αλεξάνδρεια – σ’ ένα σπίτι της οδού Σερίφ· μικρός πολύ έφυγα, και αρκετό μέρος της παιδικής μου ηλικίας το πέρασα στην Αγγλία. Κατόπιν επισκέφθην την χώραν αυτήν μεγάλος, αλλά για μικρόν χρονικόν διάστημα. Διέμεινα και στη Γαλλία. Στην εφηβικήν μου ηλικίαν κατοίκησα υπέρ τα δύο έτη στην Κωνσταντινούπολη. Στην Ελλάδα είναι πολλά χρόνια που δεν επήγα. Η τελευταία μου εργασία ήταν υπαλλήλου εις ένα κυβερνητικόν γραφείον εξαρτώμενον από το υπουργείον των Δημοσίων Έργων της Αιγύπτου. Ξέρω Αγγλικά, Γαλλικά και ολίγα Ιταλικά»
Κατεβάστε το βιβλίο σε μορφή pdf από το schooltime.gr .

OXI - The story of Konstantinos Koukidis

The date is April 27th 1941.
The German military is entering Athens. 
Α detachment under the orders of Captain Jacob and Lieutenant Elsnits headed to the Acropolis to take down the Greek flag and raise the swastika. A young man, Konstantinos Koukidis, refuses to surrender the Greek flag and carried it to his death, diving from the Acropolis. A short film by Antonis Sotiropoulos.

Παρασκευή 29 Μαρτίου 2013

Seikilos Epitaph: the oldest example of complete musical composition



The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, near Aidin, Turkey (not far from Ephesus). The find has been dated variously from around 200 BC to around AD 100.

Also on the tombstone is an indication that states:

I am a tombstone, an icon. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.
While older music with notation exists (for example the Delphic Hymns), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.
The following is a transliteration of the words which are sung to the melody, and an English translation:

Hoson zēs, phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou;
Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei
While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll.
Here is performed by the music group : SAVAE

ΥΓ. Θερμές ευχαριστίες στον καθηγητή Κ. Κωνσταντουλάκη για την κοινοποίηση του παραπάνω συνδέσμου.

«Το Εγκόλπιο της Ορθής Γραφής» Δ. Ν. Μαρωνίτης


Το κείμενο του Δ. Ν. Μαρωνίτη, «Το Εγκόλπιο της Ορθής γραφής», δημοσιεύτηκε στον Ταχυδρόμο το 1998.
Περιεχόμενα
Στίξη• Τονισμός – Έγκλιση τόνου• Συλλαβισμός• Πάθη φωνηέντων και συμφώνων• Αρχικά κεφαλαία και αρχικά μικρά• Βραχυγραφία-ακεραιότητα λέξεων• Ονόματα: ουσιαστικά, επίθετα, αντωνυμίες• Ρήματα: κλίση, αύξηση, αρχαιόμορφοι τύποι• Μόρια: σύνδεσμοι, προθέσεις, επιρρήματα• Μεταγραφή ξενικών κυρίων ονομάτων προσωπωνυμιών και τοπωνυμιών• Ημερομηνίες και ωροδείκτες• Αρχαίες ελληνικές και λατινικές εκφράσεις.
Κατεβάστε το αρχείο σε μορφή pdf από το schooltime.gr

Τετάρτη 27 Μαρτίου 2013

Εκδήλωση για το παιδικό βιβλίο με τον Σάκη Σερέφα







Στο πλαίσιο του εορτασμού της Παγκόσμιας Ημέρας Παιδικού Βιβλίου η Δημόσια Βιβλιοθήκη Σιάτιστας παρουσιάζει τον Σαλονικιό συγγραφέα Σάκη Σερέφα που οι γονείς του γεννήθηκαν στη Σιάτιστα και το βιβλίο του «Μια Τρύπα στο Νερό» το Σάββατο 30 Μαρτίου στις 11.30 π.μ. στο Κουκουλίδειο Πνευματικό Κέντρο.
Το βιβλίο κυκλοφόρησε το 2012 από τις εκδόσεις Πατάκης και περιγράφει τις περιπέτειες ενός παιδιού στην προσπάθεια να γνωρίσει τη ζωή και τον κόσμο. Ένα πρωί ο Γιάννης αντιλαμβάνεται πως ζει μέσα σε έναν τρύπιο κόσμο. Κουμπότρυπες, κλειδαρότρυπες, μυρμηγκότρυπες και δεκάδες άλλες τρύπες παντού γύρω του. Όμως αυτές δεν του φτάνουν. Θέλει να είναι ο πρώτος που θα καταφέρει το ανέφικτο. Να ανοίξει μια τρύπα στο νερό! Οπότε, αφιερώνει μια ολόκληρη μέρα σε αυτή την προσπάθεια. Και τότε η ζωή του αλλάζει.
Πολλοί από τους μικρούς αναγνώστες μας είναι ήδη εξοικειωμένοι με το βιβλίο, καθώς πήραν μέρος στα εργαστήρια Δημιουργικής Γραφής κια Δραματοποίησης που οργάνωσε η Βιβλιοθήκη. Η εκδήλωση του Σαββάτου αποτελεί κορύφωση της όλης προεργασίας. Ο Σάκης Σερέφας θα συνομιλήσει με τους μικρούς αναγνώστες και θα παρουσιαστούν οι καρποί της προσπάθειάς τους να επικοινωνήσουν δημιουργικά και ενεργητικά με το βιβλίο του.

Σάββατο 23 Μαρτίου 2013

True Perception - The Path of Dharma Art by Chogyam Trungpa





Outrageousness
I don't think you learn dharma art, you discover it; and you do not teach dharma art, but you set up an environment so it can be discovered.

DHARMA ART IS BASED on energy and conviction. In this regard, the perceptions of everyday life are seen as a resource, or working basis, for both the work of art and the practice of meditation. But there seems to be a need for two further types of energy-the energy of non-aggression and the energy of outrageousness.

Generally, outrageousness is a product of extending oneself: you can't contain yourself, therefore you become outrageous. You tend to spill over what you can't contain in your container. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. Outrageousness here is a sense of direct conviction, in which you feel intense humor, or intense energy and power, penetrating inside. Such outrageousness seems to be necessary, but it has to be accompanied by nonaggression. The question of nonaggression is based on whether you perceive your particular world in connection with glorifying your existence and your ego in the neurotic sense, or whether it is free from that.

That's very definite. But there seem to be mixed feelings in people's minds-inspiration is mixed with ego-centeredness. Somehow, that mixture tends to produce a sense of blindness in which you are unable to see the panoramic vision of a given situation, and consequently you are unable to act accordingly. So there's a problem with being self-centered, if there is aggression as well as self-consciousness. Self-consciousness alone doesn't seem to be a particularly big problem. In fact, sometimes there's room for being self-conscious: the constant checking, constant reviewing, might he a source of further cynicism toward one's ego, which could be desirable. But definitely aggression is a big problem.

Aggression is based on wanting to demonstrate something that you know, wanting to tell somebody the truth you have discovered. Although your demonstration might be okay, even fantastic, and the truth you have discovered may be relevant, the means and way the whole thing is presented seems to he a problem. From that point of view, we can't have rules and regulations as to what to say and what not to say, how to act and how not to act, particularly. The whole thing has to be genuinely intuitive. The medium, or the style that we use in presenting the truth, seems to be the crux of the matter. In other words, an artist may he able to present his or her work of art precisely and thoroughly. But a work of art doesn't come out purely transparent, without personalitv. A work of art always has the smell, so to speak, or the feelings of whoever produced that particular work of art. For instance, the smell and feeling of that person could be extraordinarily aggressive. In that case, no matter what the actual representations may be, the person behind it has a lot of aggression, so more garbage is involved. The question of nonaggression is extremely important. Nonaggression makes art the art of dharma, or truth-real art. Such art has a sense of real simplicity, without any handles attached. We only want to exhibit our work of art, perlhrrn our work of art, or live with our work of art.

In a lot of art there is a tendency to try to capture a glimpse of one moment of experience and make it into a solid eternity. We have some brilliant idea and we try to make it into a piece of art. But that is captured art. We try to capture our artistic talent in a particular work of art -a piece of music, a painting, a poem. Until that work of art is forgotten or destroyed, it is stuck on a piece of paper or Ofl a canvas or on a record that can be listened to over and over. It seems that such an attempt to solidify ones work of art, instead of giving birth to artistic talent, creates death for artistic talent.

We could shift our allegiance from death to life. In that case, art becomes a living continuity and is seen as a perpetual process. First somebody has an idea. The idea is presented in a very embryonic stage at the beginning. It begins as a seed, but then that embryonic essence begins to sprout and to make shoots. As it continues to develop and grow, it makes little flower buds. That concept of art is based on the idea of living. The basic point is that there is a sense of continuity in your understanding of life.

If you know who you are, what you are, where you are, and you have something to say about that, you could share it with your fellow human beings. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you don't want to publicize it. And even if you do want to publicize your embryonic discoveries, you don't spell out the whole thing at once. It is very tempting to spell everything out, which proves one's legitimacy, one's wisdom, or one's artistry. But according to the Buddhist tradition, in communicating with the world, particularly in the realm of art, the only thing you can do is hint, just give a basic headline. It depends on your attitude. If you want to demonstrate something very badly and you achieve that, then your work of art is a dead one. But if you present your work of art as a completely full message without spelling out every word of it, then you have just given the public a corner of what you might say. Therefore it is still fertile in people's minds and there is room for it to unfold. It is living art.

If you expound more than is necessary, it becomes apologetic. And it is boring because the audience begins to follow the logic while you are still standing on it. And you begin to pounce on it at the same time. I think the problem is that people are afraid they might be ignored, they might become failures, so they end up explaining everything they know, all the reference points at once. That attitude of poverty or failure makes your theater dirt, your poetry dirt. Usually the sense of something unsaid but implied makes more sense to people. It is not particularly holding back the truth, it is being honest and at the same time festive about what you have to say. Then art is a living process.

Nonaggression doesn't mean there is a regulation or cutting down of anything. Nonaggression is a product of awakened realization. You don't usually feel a sense of inhibition when you awake during the day from sleep. You just go about your everyday life, because awake and asleep are different. And of course you don't try to fall asleep in the middle of your activities during the day. But at the same time, you don't feel that you are inhibited from anything because you are not sleeping. Nonaggression is an organic process rather than a discipline or moral binding. Nonaggression is seeing through the aggression and realizing there are more ways to be active and efficient than being aggressive; it is realizing a new angle of energy.

In the case of meditation practice, either we do it at the simple, matter-of-fact level or we do it with a very meaningful religious or philosophical undertone. That undertone automatically becomes dogma and belief, and that belief becomes a very definite belief. Because that belief is very definite, therefore you should defend that belief. And defending that belief becomes aggression. The quality of outrageousness is the opposite of that-or the extension of that act without aggression. The definition of outrageousness is basically a sense of humor. In this case, humor is not particularly making fun and mocking somebody or something. Instead, it is an appreciative gesture. That is, things don't seem to be as heavy as we think they are, but they seem to be floating above the ground, and seemingly hilarious, funny, swift, and lucid.

At the same time, humor is not particularly casual or haphazard. The casual approach to life is often the result of being shy and feeling self-conscious and tense, so you would like to pass the buck or divert the attention to some other situation. But that also diverts the concentration of attitude and energy, so it is basically stupid rather than insightful. Humor is not like buying toys for your kids, which is somewhat lighthearted-unless the toy turns out to be extraordinarily expensive. And it is not at the level of the cheap world of plastics or teddy bears. It comes from delight and a sense of celebration. A sense of humor from that point of view is very transparent; at the same time, it is very definite. It has its own background and sanity.

Outrageousness is a question of being fearless in your celebration and your sense of humor. Sometimes it could be somewhat absurd and stubborn, but that seems to be the necessary eccentricity of this particular approach. Again, as long as it doesn't contain aggression and an exhibitionistic outlook, it seems to be quite simple. A sense of conviction brings fearlessness, outrageousness, and a sense of humor. And that basic sense of groundlessness and nonexistence brings up the question of aggression in the practice of art.

In dealing with aggression, we can't really separate ourselves into professional artists, amateur artists, and meditators. At the same time, somebody could be both a professional and an amateur artist and a meditator as well. Those areas are all related. Dharma art does not involve tricks or have to do with training artists in the Buddhist scheme. But our attitude toward art has to be expanded. This society in particular thrives on pigeonholing everybody's style and discipline into categories, which becomes very clumsy and imprisoning.

You could try to continue your artwork and your meditation together, whatever you do in your life and whatever job you might have. I don't think you learn dharma art, you discover it; and you do not teach dharma art, but you set up an environment so it can be discovered. It's like preparing a nice meditation hall, with nice cushions to sit on, so it's inviting for you to sit and take part in meditation practice. The makers of the meditation hail and the cushions can't make you meditate, particularly-that's what you can do. And that is dharma art, it seems to me.

Οι ποιητικές φωνές της μικρής μας πόλης


Η ΜΙΚΡΗ ΜΑΣ ΠΟΛΗ

Φως γλαυκό ιλαρό

Του Αλιάκμονα υγρό φως

Περιρρέον ή επιστέφον

Ιχθύων γραφές

Ποτάμιος πλούτος γύρωθε απ’ την πέτρα

Ένθα Σιάτιστα η δοξασμένη

Των Μακεδνών γη, η προς δυσμάς

Ούρια όπου πνέουν ζείδωρες

Οι αύρες

Κοσμά ιερομάρτυρος του Αιτωλού

Ιακώβου οσιομάρτυρος του εκ Καστοριάς

Γεωργίου νεομάρτυρος του εκ Τσουρχλίου

Και Σοφίας της δια Χριστόν σαλής

Παρά την Κλεισούρα.

Σιταροχώραφα

Με τα πρώτα χελιδόνια να σπαθίζουν τον αέρα

Της άνοιξης

Στις απότομες χαράδρες

Όπου τα παλιά ξαφνικά γεφύρια τοξωτά

Των παραποτάμων με το ευλύγιστο κελάρυσμα

Ένθα λευκά λεία βότσαλα

Ως σαρξ λευκανθισμένη εξ ύδατος

Όμβρου κατανύξεως, εκ τήκομαι τας φρένας.

Αρχοντικά της πόλης εκκλησιές με καλντερίμια

Βυθίζονται στο ξημέρωμα πασχαλινά

Μες στην πορεία των προσευχών του όρθρου

Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ ελέησον ημάς

Απ’ τα νεκροταφεία των επί της ερώτων. Αμήν!

Σιάτιστα 30-3-2001, Αρχιμαδρίτης Ευφραίμ Τριανταφυλλόπουλος

Nature of Fun, Nature of Art ?





The Nature of Fun: David Foster Wallace on Why Writers Write

by 
“Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable.”

In the beginning, when you first start out trying to write fiction, the whole endeavor’s about fun. You don’t expect anybody else to read it. You’re writing almost wholly to get yourself off. To enable your own fantasies and deviant logics and to escape or transform parts of yourself you don’t like. And it works – and it’s terrific fun. Then, if you have good luck and people seem to like what you do, and you actually start to get paid for it, and get to see your stuff professionally typeset and bound and blurbed and reviewed and even (once) being read on the a.m. subway by a pretty girl you don’t even know it seems to make it even more fun. For a while. Then things start to get complicated and confusing, not to mention scary. Now you feel like you’re writing for other people, or at least you hope so. You’re no longer writing just to get yourself off, which — since any kind of masturbation is lonely and hollow — is probably good. But what replaces the onanistic motive? You’ve found you very much enjoy having your writing liked by people, and you find you’re extremely keen to have people like the new stuff you’re doing. The motive of pure personal starts to get supplanted by the motive of being liked, of having pretty people you don’t know like you and admire you and think you’re a good writer. Onanism gives way to attempted seduction, as a motive. Now, attempted seduction is hard work, and its fun is offset by a terrible fear of rejection. Whatever “ego” means, your ego has now gotten into the game. Or maybe “vanity” is a better word. Because you notice that a good deal of your writing has now become basically showing off, trying to get people to think you’re good. This is understandable. You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing — your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal.

motivated and informed by an overwhelming need to be liked. This results in shitty fiction. And the shitty work must get fed to the wastebasket, less because of any sort of artistic integrity than simply because shitty work will cause you to be disliked. At this point in the evolution of writerly fun, the very thing that’s always motivated you to write is now also what’s motivating you to feed your writing to the wastebasket. This is a paradox and a kind of double-bind, and it can keep you stuck inside yourself for months or even years, during which period you wail and gnash and rue your bad luck and wonder bitterly where all the fun of the thing could have gone.

The smart thing to say, I think, is that the way out of this bind is to work your way somehow back to your original motivation — fun. And, if you can find your way back to fun, you will find that the hideously unfortunate double-bind of the late vain period turns out really to have been good luck for you. Because the fun you work back to has been transfigured by the extreme unpleasantness of vanity and fear, an unpleasantness you’re now so anxious to avoid that the fun you rediscover is a way fuller and more large-hearted kind of fun. It has something to do with Work as Play. Or with the discovery that disciplined fun is more than impulsive or hedonistic fun. Or with figuring out that not all paradoxes have to be paralyzing. Under fun’s new administration, writing fiction becomes a way to go deep inside yourself and illuminate precisely the stuff you don’t want to see or let anyone else see, and this stuff usually turns out (paradoxically) to be precisely the stuff all writers and readers everywhere share and respond to, feel. Fiction becomes a weird way to countenance yourself and to tell the truth instead of being a way to escape yourself or present yourself in a way you figure you will be maximally likable. This process is complicated and confusing and scary, and also hard work, but it turns out to be the best fun there is.
He concludes on a Bradbury-like note:
The fact that you can now sustain the fun of writing only by confronting the very same unfun parts of yourself you’d first used writing to avoid or disguise is another paradox, but this one isn’t any kind of bind at all. What it is is a gift, a kind of miracle, and compared to it the rewards of strangers’ affection is as dust, lint.

Τρίτη 19 Μαρτίου 2013

Sapfo 1 (Sappho 1): Music by Anastasia Guy




Music set to poetry by Anastasia Guy.
The "Sapfo 1" is a song based on excerpts from Sapfo poetical composition.
Arrangements by Francis Guy.
Solo: Eleni Michalopoulou
Conductor: Francis Guy

In the "Kinyras, Kypri and the Nereids" (ΚΙΝΥΡΑΣ, Κύπρι και Νηρηίδες) circle of songs, history and legend are met through music set the poetry from Sapfo, George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis and Athena Charalambidou.In the musical unit of the play, the hymn to Aphrodite dominates, Kinyras is the epicentre and the climax comes with the contest between Kinyras and Apollon in musical competitions on Lyre and Kinyras (musical instruments).

Παρασκευή 15 Μαρτίου 2013

Wondrous the Merge: Why Love Knows No Boundaries



Exultantly besotted, James wrote Joel in a letter:
I did not think you would come to me in this lifetime.
On April 5th, 1975, James Broughton captured in his journal, preserved at the Kent State archives, a joyously disbelieving account of their first time making love:
And it was wonderful, truly wondrous. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I can still scarcely believe it. Such mutual joy. I was half my age. Age vanished. There was only lovingness. And connecting. And ecstasy. As if this were what I had been waiting for all my life, since … Littlejohn of boyhood. And thought had long since passed all opportunity by me.
And it was suddenly here. So very here. So tenderly and strongly. At the moment I cannot ask the future or the end. I am too exhilarant and purry. It is a miracle. It is from Hermes himself. It is a manifestation of so much that I have been feeling under surface in my soul so long: an incarnation. It had to become manifest. So much desire must create a reality.

Πέμπτη 14 Μαρτίου 2013

Environmental Activist and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy at Naropa University



"Hope isn't something you have, it's something you do."

Joanna Macy




In February 2013, Naropa University welcomed back environmental activist and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, who presented the public lecture "Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in Without Going Crazy." She addressed what she deems the most significant aspect of this historical moment on Earth—that we as humans have begun to awake from a long sleep, to an entirely new relationship to our world, to ourselves, and to each other. Macy has coined this shift from an industrial growth paradigm to a life-sustaining one as "the Great Turning." She offered stories on this time of the Great Turning, as well as reflect on how to remain sane, centered, and connected during the inevitable unraveling of an unsustainable civilization. 

Τετάρτη 13 Μαρτίου 2013

It's ecstasy that matters...



"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Αποτελεί θαύμα το ότι η περιέργεια επιβιώνει στην επίσημη εκπαίδευση , Αλβέρτος Αινστάιν



It’s something useless, sudden, violent; something that costs a life; red, blue, purple; a spirit; a splash … free from taint, dependence, soilure of humanity or care for one’s kind; something rash, ridiculous… ecstasy — it’s ecstasy that matters.
inspired by brainpickings.org






A Message to Young People from Andrei Tarkovsky

y
What would you like to tell people? I don’t know… I think I’d like to say only that they should learn to be alone and try to spend as much time as possible by themselves. I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to be spend time with oneself. That doesn’t mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn’t grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view.
By Maria Popova 

Τρίτη 12 Μαρτίου 2013

«Νηπενθή (1921)» του Κώστα Καρυωτάκη. Ψηφιακό βιβλίο με ελεύθερη διανομή | schooltime.gr

«Νηπενθή (1921)» του Κώστα Καρυωτάκη. Ψηφιακό βιβλίο με ελεύθερη διανομή | schooltime.gr

 «Νηπενθή (1921)»
Κώστας Καρυωτάκης
Σαν Πρόλογος
Η κούνια μου ακουμπούσε στη βιβλιοθήκη, Βαβήλ σκοτεινόν, όπου μυθιστόρημα, επιστήμη, μυθολογία, τα πάντα, η λατινική τέφρα και η ελληνική σκόνη, ανακατευόσαντε. Δεν ήμουν μεγαλύτερος από ένα βιβλίο.
Δύο φωνές μου μιλούσαν. Η πρώτη, ύπουλη και σταθερή, έλεγε: «Η Γη είναι ένα γλύκισμα ωραίο· μπορώ (και η ευχαρίστηση σου θα ‘ναι τότε χωρίς τέλος!) να σου δώσω μιαν όρεξη παρόμοια μεγάλη». Και η δεύτερη: «Έλα! ω, έλα στο ταξίδι των ονείρων, πέρα από το δυνατό, πέρα από το γνωρισμένο!».Και η φωνή αυτή ετραγουδούσε όπως ο άνεμος στις ακρογιαλιές, φάντασμα που κλαυθμυρίζει και κανείς δεν ξέρει πούθε ήρθε, που χαϊδεύει το αυτί κι όμως τρομάζει. Σου απάντησα: «Ναι! γλυκιά φωνή!».
Από τότε κρατάει αυτό που μπορεί, αλίμονο! να ειπωθεί πληγή μου και πεπρωμένο μου. Πίσω από τις σκηνοθεσίες της απεράντου υπάρξεως, στο μελανότερο της αβύσσου, βλέπω καθαρά κόσμους παράξενους, και, θύμα εκστατικό της οξυδέρκειάς μου, σέρνω φίδια που μου δαγκάνουν τα πόδια. κι από εκείνο τον καιρό αγαπώ τόσο τρυφερά, καθώς οι προφήτες, την έρημο και τη θάλασσα, γελώ στα πένθη κλαίω στις γιορτές, βρίσκω μια γεύση γλυκιά στο πικρό κρασί, νομίζω πολλές φορές για ψέματα τις αλήθειες, και, με τα μάτια στον ουρανό, πέφτω σε γκρεμούς.
Αλλά η Φωνή με παρηγορεί και λέει: «Κράτησε τα όνειρά σου· οι συνετοί δεν έχουν έτσι ωραία σαν τους τρελούς!» Charles Baudelaire

Το (πραγματικό) μυστικό του Μπαχ

 Πριν από χρόνια γνωστός μου μου σύστησε να πάρω και να διαβάσω "Το μυστικό του Μπαχ" του Philippe Delelis. Πρόκειται για ένα μυθιστόρημα στο στιλ των πονημάτων του Dan Brown. Στο βιβλίο αυτό μια απίστευτη συνωμοσία έχει στηθεί και κρύβεται πίσω από ένα από τα πιο γνωστά έργα του Μπαχ. Συγκεκριμένα σύμφωνα με το βιβλίο στο θέμα της "Μουσικής Προσφοράς" (Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079) του Μπαχ κρύβεται ένα τρομερό μυστικό που οδηγεί στο θάνατο όσους το εντοπίσουν και επιχειρήσουν να το αποκαλύψουν. Όλα ξεκινούν και κρύβονται σύμφωνα πάντα με το βιβλίο σε μια "ανωμαλία", σε κάτι εξαιρετικά ασυνήθιστο που υπάρχει στη μελωδία του βασιλικού θέματος. Τι είναι αυτό; Υπάρχει, λέει, το διάστημα έβδομης ελαττωμένης που δεν εμφανίζεται σε καμιά άλλη μελωδία σε οποιοδήποτε άλλο έργο του Μπαχ. Και σα να μη φτάνει αυτό, το συγκεκριμένο διάφωνο διάστημα δεν λύνεται αλλά η διαφωνία που φτιάχνει παραμένει. Γιατί να κάνει ο Ιωάννης Σεβαστιανός κάτι τέτοιο, αν όχι για να κρύψει, να κωδικοποιήσει μια τρομερή αλήθεια;

Με ελάχιστα βιβλία έχω ξενερώσει και νευριάσει τόσο έντονα όσο με αυτό. Το διάβασα μόνο από απορία για να δω που το πήγαινε, όσο όμως προχωρούσα τόσο περισσότερο συγχυζόμουν. Όλο το βιβλίο στηρίζεται σε πράγματα που δεν ισχύουν. Ούτε η έβδομη ελαττωμένη κάνει την μοναδική της εμφάνιση στο θέμα αυτό, ούτε παραμένει άλυτη. Τίποτα από αυτά δεν ισχύει και όσο περισσότερο ο συγγραφέας μπλέκει και στηρίζει την ιστορία του επάνω σε αυτά τόσο περισσότερο εκτίθεται. Δεν χρειάζεται καν κάποιο σπουδαίο θεωρητικό μυαλό να καταλάβει ότι γράφει απίστευτες μπούρδες· και ο τελευταίος δασκαλάκος των θεωρητικών μπορεί να το βεβαιώσει. Υπάρχουν ουκ ολίγα μυστικά ή καλύτερα σημεία με δύσκολη θεωρητική ερμηνεία στη μουσική του Μπαχ, απλά το θέμα της Μουσικής Προσφοράς δεν είναι από αυτά· ούτε βέβαια θα βρει κανείς πίσω από αυτά τα σημεία διεθνείς συνωμοσίες και πλεκτάνες. Παρόλο που αυτό μπορεί να χαλάει τα σχέδια σε επίδοξους σεναριογράφους blockbuster, τα μουσικά κείμενα του Μπαχ κάθε άλλο παρά βαρετά είναι για τους θεωρητικούς και τους μουσικούς αναλυτές. Μπορεί να συναντήσει κανείς μέσα σε αυτά πλήθος συναρπαστικών αινιγμάτων (αρκεί να είναι αρκούντως μουσικό geek).

Αυτό το σαββατοκύριακο κάνω babysitting την ανηψιά μου και για αυτό κυλάει πολύ αργά (το όποιο πατρικό μου ένστικτο εξαντλείται σε τρία-τέσσερα τέτοια σαββατοκύριακα το χρόνο). Έτσι όταν το απόγευμα τηλεφώνησε ο μάγειρας να ρωτήσει τη γνώμη μου για ένα σημείο που τον προβλημάτιζε με χαρά καταπιάστηκα με αυτό. Πάρκαρα τη μικρή στον υπολογιστή να παίζει Sims 3 (άλλο που δεν ήθελε), έβαλα κάτω την παρτιτούρα και σε λίγο τα τηλεφωνήματα με το μάγειρα έδιναν κι έπαιρναν: Μήπως αν το θεωρήσουμε έτσι, είναι καλύτερα; Πως όμως ακούγεται αυτό; Μήπως το ένα, μήπως το άλλο, καταλήξαμε σε κάποια συμπεράσματα.

Να τα βάλω στη σειρά. Το ερώτημα του μάγειρα ήταν το εξής: τι γίνεται στα τέσσερα τελευταία μέτρα (μ. 57-60) στην Corrente της πρώτης Παρτίτας του Ιωάννη Σεβαστιανού; Λύνεται το φα της διάφωνης συνήχησης του μέτρου 57; Που και πως; Το απόσπασμα που αναφέρομαι φαίνεται αμέσως παραπάνω αλλά καλύτερα να δείτε όλη την κίνηση καθώς θα έχετε έτσι μια συνολική εικόνα της μουσικής και του υλικού που χρησιμοποιεί ο Μπαχ. Παρτιτούρα της 1ης Παρτίτας μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ. Αν θέλετε μας λέτε τι νομίζετε ότι συμβαίνει στα μέτρα αυτά. Θα γράψουμε κι εμείς τι σκεφτήκαμε και τι εξηγήσεις δώσαμε λίγο αργότερα.
 
Αναδημοσίευση από: http://statler-waldorf-balcony.blogspot.gr/

 

Σάββατο 9 Μαρτίου 2013


How To Write Letters: A Vintage Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquette, 1876

by 
“A letter should be regarded not merely as a medium for the communication of intelligence, but also as a work of art.”

As a lover of old letters, I have a special soft spot for the lost art of letter-writing — an art robbed of romance and even basic courtesy in the age of rapid-fire, efficiency-obsessed, typed-with-one-thumb-on-a-tiny-keyboard communication. So I was utterly delighted to discover a rare and remarkable little book titledHow To Write Letters (UKpublic librarypublic domain) — a “manual of correspondence, showing the correct structure, composition, punctuation, formalities, and uses of the various kinds of Letters, Notes and Cards,” written in 1876 by J. Willis Westlake, an English Literature professor at the State Normal School in Millersville, Pennsylvania. From how to address the recipient and sign your name to the conventions of business vs. social vs. personal letters to the most elegant way to fold the sheet, Westlake presents a guide not only to the craft of writing letters, but also to the conceptual elements of composition and the role of letters as social currency.
At once delightfully dated in many of its cultural assumptions — particularly the epistolary norms for the sexes — and charmingly urbane in its practical prescriptions, this tiny treasure tells us as much about the long-lost era of its origin as it does about the standards we’ve chosen, and chosen to leave behind, in our own. Above all, it reminds us that sentiment lives not only in what is being communicated but also in how it is being communicated — an osmosis all the more important today, when cold screens and electronic text have left the written word homogenized and devoid of expressive form.