Cand vine noaptea, nu vreau sa ma despart de lumea celor vii, nu mai am somn, nu mai am liniste si daca somnul apare si la usa mea, nu ma trage sufletul sa ma pun in pat…cata dorinta pentru viata, cata placere pentru a trai, cata iubire in sufletul meu pentru acest pamant…

Aseara am revazut doua filme  “Killing Me Softly” si  “Message in a Bottle”…2 filme…o singura dragoste, o dragoste pe care as vrea s-o traiesc si eu…sunt singurele doua filme la care pot plange de fiecare data cand le revad…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DZ63B_Iq9g&NR=1

Aquí os dejo otra de mis canciones favoritas, es muy conocida y podría considerarse como un clásico y aunque es antigüa, para mi sigue siendo una de las mejores!

Incontro Francis è tornato dal Bhutan dove ha scroccato per una settimana vitto e alloggio a UNDP per una Conferenza internazionale su “Deepening and Sustaining democracy” (12-14 ottobre). Bel posto, tutti simpatici, paese che merita di essere visitato, assomiglia un po’ al Nepal di 20 anni orsono. Anche qui tutto è in movimento e i soldi che provengono dalla vendita di elettricità all’India hanno portato ricchezza, almeno a Paro e Thimpu (le città principali).

Tanto più, nessuno lo dice, che agli inizi degli anni ’90 hanno espulso 120.000 bhutanesi di etnia nepalese (Lhotshampa), sequestrandogli beni e case e mandandoli a languire in campi profughi nel Terai. liberando un pò di spazio e risorse.

Adesso qualcuno è entrato in programmi di “resettlement” e lentamente (20.000 fino ad oggi) sta emigrando in USA, Canada, Australia, Olanda e in altri paesi europei. La situazione nei campi è pessima malgrado le prime evacuazioni. Il WFP ha bloccato l’invio di cibo e alcuni pensano che sia un modo per forzare i rifugiati ad abbandonare i campi e indurli a smettere di chiedere di tornare nella loro patria, appunto il simpatico Bhutan.  Nessuno vuole litigare per accontentarli, così i numerosi incontri fra governi (Nepal, contro India e Buthan e  paesi occidentali donatori)  hanno prodotto niente.

Francis racconta che, oltre alla triste storia dei rifugiati, suonava strano vedere baci e abbracci fra il Primo Ministro bhutanese Jigmi Thinley e il Regional Director dell’UNDP Ajay Chhibber quando è noto che il Bhutan non è ai primi posti, per quanto possa valere, come democrazia.  L’attuale classe politica (due partiti Druk Phuensum Tshogpa- Bhutan United Party- 47 seggi e People’s Democratic Party -PDP- 2 seggi) eletta nelle prime elezioni parlamentari nel 2008 a liste bloccate (come nel passato),  è formata da appartenenti all’aristocrazia, le autonomie locali sono inesistenti, il sovrano mantiene il controllo tramite i suoi uomini eletti e la Presidenza dell’Alta Corte di Giustiza.

Poi, per amordiddio, conclude Francis la gente, almeno a Thimpu , la capitale se la passa abbastanza e la città s’è riempita di bei ristoranti e discoteche negli ultimi anni. I turisti rimangono pochi (circa 20.000 all’anno), per scelta tradizionale del governo, e vi è attenzione alla difesa della natura (circa il 60% della popolazione vive nei villaggi  d’agricoltura e allevamento).

Il Buthan, si legge nell’annuale Report sulla corruzione nel mondo (in base agli indici di percezione del fenomeno elaborati da Transparency International),  è 49° (su 180 paesi), meglio dell’Italia (63°), India (84°), Nepal (143°) e Cambogia (158°).

Poi, però, mi capita sotto le mani un libretto scritto da Tek Nath Rijal, Torture, Killing Me Softly, pubblicato in Nepal dopo il successo del suo libro precedente Nirbasan (in nepali). Il poveretto è stato 19 anni nelle prigioni del Buthan, per le sue attività pro-Lhotsampa e per “Deepening and Sustaining democracy” in quel paese. “This book describes the hell named Bhutanese prisons and is the first documentation of mind control in this part of the globe.  I have presented an account of my harrowing experiences and injustice I continue to suffer, for which the king and his regime of tyranny are mainly responsible. I have been the victim of mind control for the last 19 years,“

E racconta sistemi di tortura morbidi e raffinati come il “mind-control device”. “It is an electromagnetic mind control technique, which can take full control of the person’s body and mind permanently. It uses modulated microwaves to produce audible voices in the person’s head. It is in the form of subliminal hypnotic command and the victim can be hypnotically programmed for the years without knowing. The motive of mind control is to destroy the targeted person’s life. He digresses from his goal, forgets his mission, behaves strangely with his family and relatives and can not follow his routine life. It is used to elicit the required information from the prisoner as it hypnotises him.”  Ricordiamoci un pò anche degli sfigati.

#184 – The Fugees – “Killing Me Softly” – (1996)

The Fugees are the one remarkable super-group (that I can think of) whose members were more famous independently after they left the group than they ever were for being part of the group in the first place. Pras (“Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are“), Wylcef Jean (uh, many things), and Lauryn Hill, whose “Doo Wop (That Thing)” was a massive hit in its own right and I distinctly remember it sweeping the VMAs back in 1999.

Cycling is sport and transportation and transformation. And cycling is vantage. A position and condition that when combined, offer a Point of View. The position, seated on a bike, slightly bent and pointed forward, is engaged. Moving through time and space at an average speed of 18 miles an hour, engaging the world at just the right speed, the rider experiences great vision, hearing and feeling. Part “zone”, part metaphysical and part synchronicity, the cyclist experiences a powerful Point of View. In the same family as suffering and freedom, this Point of View is one of the fundamental reasons we ride. Riding is fun.

Read more and see more… Rapha.

Frank Sinatra nasceu em 12 de dezembro de 1915, descendente de italianos teve o seu nome várias vezes relacionado com a máfia,  também era ator e ganhou um Globo de Ouro e  um Oscar de ator coadjuvante pelo filme From Here To Eternity e fez filmes com Gene Kelly, Rita Hayworth e Elvis em seus bons dias.

Foi o primeiro Danny Ocean, de Ocean’s Eleven de 1960…  Posteriormente o papel passou para George Clooney e temos então Ocean’s Eleven de 2001.

Veja aqui o video de Frank Sinatra ganhando seu Oscar em 1954 ****

Possui duas estrelas na Calçada da Fama, uma por seu trabalho na música e outra por seu trabalho na TV americana. É considerado um dos maiores intérpretes da música no século XX. Teve três filhos: Nancy Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Jr. e Tina Sinatra.Foi casado com Nancy Barbato e posteriormente com as atrizes Ava Gardner e Mia Farrow, e com a socialite Barbara Marx, com quem terminou seus dias.

Mas eu quero falar do outro lado de Frank… O lado cantor. E não vou dizer, vou só mostrar.

Seus principais sucessos são “Fly me to the moon”, “My Way” e “New York, New York”. Sinatra também cantou com o brasileiro Tom Jobim. Na oportunidade, “Girl of Ipanema” brindou o grande encontro, porém na minha mais humilde opinião o melhor momento desse encontro foi esse… Change Partners

Lililililililili-lindo demais! Vou dançar isso no meu casamento…. aiai… MAS VOLTANDO..

Strangers In The Night - Killing Me Softly - I Won’t Dance - I’ve Got You Under My Skin

E ouçam também The Way You Look Tonight que eu infelizmente não achei um video decente.

So, how are you, Blue Eyes?

**** O filme The Godfather (1972) explora a história, mostrando que na verdade o ator teria sido “convencido” pela máfia a desistir do papel, para que Frank Sinatra pudesse interpretá-lo em seu lugar, pois na época o cantor estava em baixa.

Depois eu vou postar um top-top.

Cya, guys

Since moving out of my flat I’ve had to faff about sorting various things. One of them is paying off bills. For some reason my electricity supplier didn’t seem to want to answer my calls though. Day after day of being left on hold wasn’t fun. But I was finally tipped over the edge by “Killing Me Softly” in soft keyboard tones. Oh the irony.

In between my report of the intense August in Berlin, and the discovery of the beautiful Casa delle Letterature yesterday in Rome, I could not refrain from posting on this movie, Videocracy, which is currently not being advertised in Italy. So basically, it doesn’t exist. At least for that portion of Italians who sip in the reality as distorted and manucured from 90% of the media.

This is not a film. Take it as a description of a medical condition. A cancer spreading in the country since 30 years. Some sort of Gomorrah-light.

Back in Italy the first alarming news were the fears that even Rai3 (maybe the only State TV still daring to report on the reality of facts) could fall in the hands of the videocrat. This is because in Italy journalists are not killed, like Anna Politkovskaya. They’re killed softly. With takeovers. With laws, limitations. Or just scandals, ostracism and oblivion.

Who knows if we will be able to see new material from Report, one of the last fortresses of reportage? A Facebook page has been set up to support Milena Gabanelli, the reporter whose investigations are now under threat. A new law would withdraw RAI TV’s legal fees coverage for journalists and force reporters to cover personally any legal fees of any trials they could incur into while doing their investigations.

Colin Crouch says Italy entered fully in the post-democratic era. He says he doesn’t know how to call it, but it’s not democracy anymore. There are traces left of democracy, but it’s a thin crust. Its filling is videocracy, flavoured and addictive like bad pet food.

PS

the program ’s official website runs painfully slow. “Engineered by rainet”? or should we rather say, boycotted?

REPORT SENZA COPERTURA LEGALE. RUFFIN SI SCHIERA PER SALVARE IL PROGRAMMA

Il primo affondo lo aveva sferrato Giulio Tremonti, presentando un esposto per la puntata di Report del 5 aprile dedicata alla social card, nel corso della quale, secondo il ministro, erano stati lesi “i principi di completezza, correttezza e obiettività” dell’informazione. Tesi bocciata dall’Agcom che ha archiviato la denuncia del titolare del dicastero dell’economia sostenendo che “non si rilevano sconfinamenti del diritto di critica”, poiché “la tecnica informativa tipica di Report è stata ritenuta legittima dal Tribunale civile di Roma”. La seconda tappa dell’operazione silenzio spetterebbe ora alla stessa Rai, che – secondo il tam tam che circola in rete in queste ore – per bocca del direttore generale Masi avrebbe annunciato di non garantire più ai giornalisti della fortunata trasmissione di RaiTre condotta da Milena Gabanelli la copertura legale. Il che equivarrebbe a una chiusura quasi certa: gli inviati della trasmissione, da sempre attivi nel denunciare le illegalità e i soprusi che ci circondano, dovrebbero provvedere di tasca propria alle spese legali cui, da bravi reporter, vanno continuamente incontro.

Di qui il lancio di una petizione subito diffusa su numerosi siti tra cui Facebook, per bloccare l’iniziativa della tv di Stato.

I giornalisti di Report dedicano la propria esistenza a ricerche scrupolose: viaggiano in lungo e in largo per arrivare alla verità e rivelarla al pubblico a casa. Scoprono traffici loschi e furti che spesso avvengono sotto i nostri occhi. Smascherano impostori, sfruttatori e tutto questo per offrire un servizio alla gente.

La Rai, invece, pur dovendo ancora risolvere la questione della direzione di Raitre ancora vacante, o anche quella di Annozero, programma minacciato di doppia conduzione “equa” (Santoro affiancato da un collega di destra) in nome della par condicio, avrebbe deciso di affrontare salomonicamente la questione, mettendo la popolare trasmissione nelle condizioni di chiudere.

Dopo il caso, si schiera con Report il direttore di Rai tre  Paolo Ruffini: “Report è un programma dell’azienda, è un buon esempio di giornalismo sano e utile. Credo che la Rai l’assistenza legale gliela debba dare”.   A questa squadra di freelance la Rai ha garantito copertura legale per anni e su richiesta della rete. Su questo tema c’è una questione che è stata sollevata, nonostante il parere contrario della rete. La mia opinione è che Report è un patrimonio e quindi è utlile all’azienda”.

THE FALL OF MAN (3 stars)

Paradise Lost in a bedsit

Milton’s long lines feel rushed and therefore unlike real-life musings, but powerful body language, unnerving music, and the clash of native and non-native idioms and priorities create loaded moments.

The Fall of Man

KILLING ME SOFTLY (3 stars)

Karaoke and tears

With the cringe-worthy inappropriateness of David Brent, our host is chatty, evasive, and, ultimately, pitiable. But the venue is wrong to play this in the afternoon: the smut is enough to induce a gag-reflex in the most seasoned late-night comedy goer.

***

Here’s the  full list of my reviews…

Luke Wright Comic and Poet

Had a pretty good fringe this year – my 9th as a ScotsGay reviewer.

The links to my 25 published reviews are here:

Mark Thomas Luke Wright Marga Gomez Amsterdam Underground Comedy Collective Bethany Black Hannah Gadsby Mould & Arrowsmith Nick Mohammd Paul Foot Paul Sinha Rosie Wilby Scott Agnew Shappi Khorsandi Stephen K Amos Susan Calman The School for Scandal Topping and Butch Reginald D Hunter Elvis Still My Heart The Sugar Dandies Rachael Sage Little Johnny’s Big Gay Musical Jane Austen’s Guide to Pornography The Timekeepers Killing Me Softly

Reviewing is an inexact science and the star rating system is flawed and often disputed. A reviewer has far too much power, good shows can be slated and fail, whilst bad shows can be praised and undeservedly succeed.

I came across a nice piece on reviews from poet Luke Wright on his blog – who also quotes from my review of his show. www.lukewright.co.uk

To have my writing admired and respected by Luke Wright – the leading poet of his generation, is ludicrous – but has left me smiling broadly never-the-less.

“I get buzzed off the fact that Andy Warhol’s heard of us because he gets buzzed off the fact that Picasso had heard of him” Sleeve notes to Welcome to the Pleasure Dome by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1984)

Like sweet melody to your ears, you guys have to check out CL singing “Killing me softly” on the latest episode of 2NE1tv.  The girl has talent and we can’t deny that.  Check it out.

So what did you guys think?  Any comments? 

Credits: DC2ne1 & haylin4780

Killing Me Softly
Gilded Balloon
Edinburgh Fringe Festival

** 2 STARS

As the audience filters into Killing Me Softly the stage is set up in the guise of an ongoing party and we are informed that we are now participants. Unfortunately unlike most parties which you can leave when you have had enough Killing Me Softly’s main difference is that it possesses a host who has outstayed his welcome. Billed as a drama where domestic violence meets karaoke the only thing that felt battered was my intelligence followed by my eardrums.

Delivering what appears to be the latest issue of Nuts magazine in verse Richard Fry peppers his performance with glib appropriation of pop culture. Dismal versions of Pulp’s Disco 2000 and Greased Lightning were especially excruciating and I felt for him during those moments. His constant references to the more tragic moments of his life in conjunction with the pop classics of that era was clichéd and obvious never rising above the predictable

Not all the blame can be laid at Fry’s feet, however, as although the show is lame the audience seemed to be mainly female and totally unresponsive. As it is delivered in such a masculine manner the expressions that I observed on those around me were a mixture of the bemused and perplexed. Perhaps with a more male orientated audience, at whom the delivery is better suited, the show might gain more credence.

Killing Me Softly does contain some intelligent rhyming moments but unfortunately not enough to drag this show out of the quagmire that it languishes in for most of its duration. It wasn’t quite so much Killing Me Softly as dying on its feet.

Reviewed by: David Marren

Last year, Richard Fry came to Edinburgh on a tentative mission to try out a new career. Now aged thirty-something, Fry’s life consisted of a rough childhood and a slew of unremarkable jobs, until a few years ago a fairytale-like twist changed his life beyond recognition. Turning up on a whim to a drama school’s auditions, he left with a scholarship and the promise of a life outside pub work. But promises are often white lies in the cutthroat world of the performing arts, and a pat on the back from a proud teacher doesn’t translate into food and a roof.

But Fry’s 2008 initial bid, a stunningly good monologue called Bully, did. Having checked into the dullest room in the Gilded Balloon, unfamiliar with Edinburgh and unknown to the world, he came out with enough praise and ticket sales to turn him professional. And so this year he’s not so much visiting the Fringe as setting up camp. Killing Me Softly, another home-brewed monologue in verse, is the crucial decider which will see him become either a one-hit wonder or a sure-hitter.

Fry’s theatre is a breed that bites and Killing Me Softly is quite unambiguously not a cuddly companion. With Bully-style volatility it swings from happy-clappy karaoke to a car crash, from a dirty joke to domestic torture. It’s a turbulent ride, but one fuelled by the sharpest wit and an unwavering, intense humanity that moves mountains. Killing Me Softly looks very good on the shelf next to Bully and it looks like Fry will be sticking around.

(As featured in Fest Magazine)

Aretha Franklin had competition come the late Sixties and early Seventies, with Dusty Springfield on one hand and Roberta Flack on the other.

Flack was coming from D.C., and from Howard University, where she had developed her own understated but lovely style. She was discovered by jazz pianist Les McCann, who helped her get a contract at Atlantic. However, Flack’s work went nowhere at Atlantic Records until Clint Eastwood used her song, “The First Time (Ever I Saw Your Face)” for his love scene in the film, Play Misty for Me That song, and Flack, took off into the musical stratosphere.

The same named album, Killing Me Softly, won the 1974 Grammy for Best Record. The music and lyrics were written by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel. It was Flack’s fifth album.

Flack is well-known for her musical collaborations with the late Donny Hathaway (who was at work with Flack in New York at the time of his suicide) and with Peabo Bryson and Maxi Priest. Nowadays, you can hear her on adult contemporary or Quiet Storm-influenced stations. At 72, she is active in an organization that assists other singers and musicians in retaining the rights to their musical output.