L'Avventura, by Michelangelo Antonioni (1960)

Found in Links: 27.05.2014

1. In this 5 minute TED Talk, David Brooks discusses the old-age dillema: should you live for your resumé or your eulogy? Worth giving a look, and definitely worth giving a thought.

2. I'm a sucker for old hollywood films and the movie-going traditions that were tied to that era. It's awful to see more and more theatres closing down every year, and - with the changing of our society - the loss of many of the little things that made the experience of going to the cinema an event. 

3. Amazing photographs of airports seen from above. 

4. Boys Don't Cry.... or do they? 

5. And lastly, a tiny bit of humour with Dear Doris Day. 

Cheers!

And remember: mum's the word.

Monday Mood: Can you take me back?

Sunday Shorts: SLOMO

SLOMO from Josh Izenberg on Vimeo.

Mid Twenties Crisis

  Last week, I was feeling a bit worried with how little I seem to have accomplished at 23. 

Paul Simon was 23 when he wrote The Sound of Silence.

John Lennon was 27 when he wrote A Day in the Life.

George Harrison, at 25, composed While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and at 26, Something.

Citizen Kane? This classic was directed, written and produced by Orson Welles at 26. 

Richard Branson founded Virgin at 20.

  I'm not assuming with this list that I'm some sort of a genius, nor that I was born with a natural 'out of this world' talent that must (almost mandatorily) be rewarded, no. 

  Still, I thought it would be nice to know I have the chance or possibility to achieve some success, in spite of the fact that I'm almost half way through my 20s...

  Long story short: In this two-episode essay, I found the little ego boost I was looking for. 

The Long Game Part 1: Why Leonardo DaVinci was no genius from Delve on Vimeo.


The Long Game Part 2: the missing chapter from Delve on Vimeo.

May Muse: Anna Karina

Weekend in Squares ( II )

Weekend in Squares ( I )

  I haven't been in the blogosphere very much lately. With a special visitor in town, I've been trying to keep my hands off technology as much as possible, and focus more on the short-term company I won't have around for much longer.

  Last Sunday we took a stroll around Lisbon and pretended, once again, to be tourists for a day - this time speaking English and all.

Sunday Shorts: "Neil"

'Neil' by Story Digital from Create50 on Vimeo.

Souvenirs of a Tiny Bookshop

Two Saturdays ago, at some point during this rainy gloomy day, we found a charming old bookstore in Chiado. The shop was tiny (the space was the size of a small room) and when we walked inside, only two people were there: the owner and another customer. As we slowly entered, we found a mad universe of books everywhere - from the shelves, to the floor, and even stacks of books in chairs. 

I headed to the end of that little room, where I found a basket with some old postcards. Let me explain why this was my first destination. 

I've always liked postcards. Sending them, receiving them, writing them... Unfortunately, given the generation I was born in, postcards give me a sort of melancholic nostalgia of a tradition I know I will never fully experience. 

Sure, every now and then I might send or receive a postcard in the mail, but it's obviously not the same. Recently, though, I've come to find a deeper interest in other people's postcards. People I have never met, will never meet, and of whom I have no information about. Maybe they're alive, maybe they're dead. Maybe they were abducted by extraterrestrials. What it all comes down to, and what I find fascinating, is that in these postcards I get a glimpse of a story, a piece of someone's life, of what one person had to say to another... (Is this hobby of mine some sort of "new age voyeurism"?, I wonder.)

I was in between a groupie's postcard to a musician and a proud grandmother's postcard to her grand daughter (who had just passed her exams), when the owner of the shop started speaking to us.

As he showed us his collection of Black Magic books, Music books and History books, we talked for ages. 

One of the things we learned about this man, was the fact that he almost married a frenchwoman (apparently an heiress of Perrier water family), but ended up marrying a portuguese woman. His french fiancée could not leave Paris behind and he could not leave Lisbon. "It's okay. She was more of an aperitif", said the other customer, a 92-year-old book collector. 

As the men continued talking, I found two old 1940s almanacs that ended up coming home with me. Inside each one of them was a world filled with poems, short stories, quotes, articles about absolutely every subject you can imagine, jokes, puzzles and a calendar. 

Take a look: 

Sunday Shorts: Table 7

  Arriving a day late (due to a quick trip to the city of London this weekend!!!), here is last week's Sunday Short. A glimpse into what probably happens in some restaurant basements. Could eavesdropping into someone else's conversations end up helping them in the end? Hmm... I wonder. 

Table 7 (sous-titre français) from POULO production on Vimeo.