Canzone nella mia vita

-dialectica a due a tre a 4

Primo disco acquistato:
               "sei come la mia moto" di jovanotti
Ultimo disco acquistato: 
             "Com Lag Ep" Radiohead
Disco che ha cambiato la tua vita: 
            "Mellon Collie " Smashing pumpkins
Copertina preferita: 
          "( )" Sigur Ros
La canzone che avresti voluto aver scritto: 
           "far finta di essere sani" Giorgio Gaber
Quella che vorresti fosse stata scritta per te:
          "one" U2
 Quella con cui vorresti svegliarti: 
          "Everything in its right place" Radiohead
 Quella da suonare con gli amici sulla spiaggia:
        "gianna gianna" rino gaetano
 Quella che vorresti al tuo funerale:
        "Di passaggio" Battiato
Quella che descrive perfettamente un momento della tua vita: "l'assenzio" Bluvertigo
 Quella che ti fa pensare alla solitudine: "un giorno di pioggia" Modena City ramblers
Quella con il miglior finale: "stairway to heaven" Led Zeppelin
Quella con il miglior inizio: "Shin on you crazy diamond" (…) Pink Floyd
 La migliore da sentire in viaggio: "sweet home alabama" lynard skynard
 Quella da cantare sotto la doccia: "lo shampoo" Giorgio Gaber
Quella che ti fa venire voglia di ballare: "girls and boys" Blur
 Quella con il testo più bello che tu abbia mai sentito: "enjoy the silence" Depeche Quella più nostalgica: "luna fortuna" guccini
 Quella più dolce: "Toxic Girl" Kings of convenience
 Quella per riflettere: "La paura" giorgio Gaber

Gianni Rodari -Sbagliare le Storie...

L’effetto comico è ottenuto dal fatto che il lettore si aspetta una certa cosa e invece ne viene raccontata un’altra:  e allora si ride. Qui di seguito trovate i testi che i bambini più volenterosi mi hanno consegnato in bella. Li farò precedere sempre dall’esempio del maestro, Gianni Rodari.

                      A sbagliare le storie

- C’era una volta una bambina che si chiamava Cappuccetto Giallo.

- No, Rosso!

- Ah, sì, Cappuccetto Rosso. La sua mamma la chiamò e disse: Senti, Cappuccetto Verde …

- Ma no, Rosso!

- Ah, sì, Rosso. Va’ dalla zia Diomira a portarle questa buccia di patata.

- No: va dalla nonna a portarle questa focaccia.

- Va bene: La bambina andò nel bosco e incontrò una giraffa.

- Che confusione! Incontrò un lupo, non una giraffa.

- Il lupo le domandò: Quanto fa 6 x 8?

- Niente affatto. Il lupo le chiese: Dove vai?

- Hai ragione. E Cappuccetto Nero rispose …

- Era Cappuccetto Rosso, rosso, rosso!

- Sì, e rispose: Vado al mercato a comprare la salsa di pomodoro…

- Neanche per sogno: Vado dalla nonna che è malata, ma non so più la strada.

- Giusto. E il cavallo disse…

- Quale cavallo? Era un lupo.

- Sicuro. E disse così: prendi il tram numero 75, scendi in piazza del Duomo, gira a destra, troverai tre scalini e un soldo per terra, lascia stare i tre scalini, raccatta il soldo e compera di una gomma da masticare.

- Nonno, tu non sai proprio raccontare le storie, le sbagli tutte. Però la gomma da masticare me la comperi lo stesso.

- Va bene: ecco il soldo.

E il nonno tornò a leggere il suo giornale.

(G. Rodari)

Gianni Rodari - Il paese dei bugiardi

16

C'era una volta, là     

dalle parti di Chissà,

il paese dei bugiardi.

In quel paese nessuno

diceva la verità,

non chiamavano col suo nome

nemmeno la cicoria:

la bugia era obbligatoria.

Quando spuntava il sole

c'era subito una pronto

a dire: "Che bel tramonto!"

Di sera, se la luna

faceva più chiaro

di un faro,

si lagnava la gente:

"Ohibò, che notte bruna,

non ci si vede niente".

Se ridevi ti compativano:

"Poveraccio, peccato,

che gli sarà mai capitato

di male?"

Se piangevi: "Che tipo originale,

sempre allegro, sempre in festa.

Deve avere i milioni nella testa".

Chiamavano acqua il vino,

seggiola il tavolino

e tutte le parole

le rovesciavano per benino.

Fare diverso non era permesso,

ma c'erano tanto abituati

che si capivano lo stesso.

Un giorno in quel paese

capitò un povero ometto

che il codice dei bugiardi

non l'aveva mai letto,

e senza tanti riguardi

se ne andava intorno

chiamando giorno il giorno

e pera la pera,

e non diceva una parola

che non fosse vera.

Dall'oggi al domani

lo fecero pigliare

dall'acchiappacani

e chiudere al manicomio.

"E' matto da legare:

dice sempre la verità".

"Ma no, ma via, ma và ..."

"Parola d'onore:

è un caso interessante,

verranno da distante

cinquecento e un professore

per studiargli il cervello ..."

La strana malattia

fu descritta in trentatre puntate

sulla "Gazzetta della bugia".

Infine per contentare

la curiosità

popolare

l'Uomo-che-diceva-la-verità

fu esposto a pagamento

nel "giardino zoo-illogico"

(anche quel nome avevano rovesciato ...)

in una gabbia di cemento armato.

Figurarsi la ressa.

Ma questo non interessa.

Cosa più sbalorditiva,

la malattia si rivelò infettiva,

e un po' alla volta in tutta la città

si diffuse il bacillo

della verità.

Dottori, poliziotti, autorità

tentarono il possibile

per frenare l'epidemia.

Macché, niente da fare.

Dal più vecchio al più piccolino

la gente ormai diceva

pane al pane, vino al vino,

bianco al bianco, nero al nero:

liberò il prigioniero,

lo elesse presidente,

e chi non mi crede

non ha capito niente.

musica italiana e teatro canzone di gaber

da sempre, fondazione Giorgio Gaber

Dueto Mi chiamo G (1970) 

a) Io mi chiamo G. 

             b) Io mi chiamo G.
a) Non hai capito, sono io che mi chiamo G.
             b) Sei tu che non hai capito, mi chiamo G anch’io.
a) Ah. Il mio papà è molto importante.
             b) Il mio papà no.
a) Il mio papà è forte, sano e intelligente.
             b) Il mio papà è debole, malaticcio e un po’ scemo.
a) La mia mamma è molto bella assomiglia a Brigitte Bardot.
             b) La mia mamma è brutta, bruttissima, la mia mamma assomiglia a… la mia mamma non assomiglia!
a) Il mio papà ha tre lauree e parla perfettamente cinque lingue.
             b) Il mio papà ha fatto la terza elementare e parla in dialetto, ma poco perché tartaglia.
a) Io sono figlio unico e vivo in una grande casa con diciotto locali spaziosi.
             b) Io vivo in una casa piccola, praticamente un locale, però c’ho diciotto fratelli.
a) Il mio papà è molto ricco guadagna 31 miliardi al mese che diviso 31 che sono i giorni che ci sono in un mese, fa… un miliardo al giorno.
             b) Il mio papà è povero guadagna 10.000 al mese che diviso 31 che sono i giorni che ci sono in un mese fa, circa… 10.000 al giorno… al primo giorno, poi dopo basta.

Il più un grande elenco di canzoni

 Lo schampoo  -Gaber

 Una brutta giornata, 

chiuso in casa a pensare,
una vita sprecata,
non c'è niente da fare,
non c'è via di scampo,
quasi quasi mi faccio uno shampoo.

Uno shampoo?

Una strana giornata,
non si muove una foglia,
ho la testa ovattata,
non ho neanche una voglia,
non c'è via di scampo:
sì, devo farmi per forza uno shampoo.

Uno shampoo? Sì, uno shampoo.

schhh... scende l'acqua, scroscia l'acqua calda, fredda, calda... giusta!
Shampoo rosso, giallo, quale marca mi va meglio... questa!

Schiuma, soffice, morbida, bianca, lieve, lieve,
sembra panna, sembra neve...
La schiuma è una cosa buona, come la mamma,
che ti accarezza la testa quando sei triste e stanco,
una mamma enorme, una mamma in bianco!

Sciacquo, sciacquo, sciacquo...

Seconda passata.

Son convinto che sia meglio quello giallo senza... canfora!
I migliori son più cari perchè sono anti... forfora!

Schiuma, soffice, morbida, bianca, lieve, lieve,
sembra panna, sembra neve...
La schiuma è una cosa sacra, è una cascata di latte,
che assopisce questa smania tipica italiana,
è una cosa sacra: come una vacca indiana!

Sciacquo, sciacquo, sciacquo...

(LO SCHAMPOO qui un duetto con Mina!!)

Kenny Roger's The Gambler: fold'em or hold'em?

Can cards teach us Valuable Lessons about Life?

Ever since Kenny Rogers penned "The Gambler", and possibly even earlier, card players have drawn parallels between poker games and life, and have extracted poker wisdom into sayings and truisms. In what is euphemistically known as "the game of life" (a.k.a. destiny, fate), we are all dealt different hands. (source: here)
As Kenny Rogers so aptly put it in his song, "The Gambler," 
"Every hand's a loser and every hand's a winner." 
It comes down thus to how you play the cards you're dealt.



This is a great song for studying for many reasons! It is very rich on action, simple but important words that in this song are linked to the life picture so that they make sense and stay in memory. Not to mention its lyrics... making it very nice to listen to.

lyrics

on a train bound to nowhere on the puppet show.

The song itself tells the story of a late-night meeting on a train "bound for nowhere" between Rogers (as narrator) and an unnamed old man who is the gambler. The gambler tells Rogers that he can tell Rogers is down on his luck ("out of aces") by the look in his eyes and offers him advice in exchange for the last swallow of whisky Rogers has. After the gambler takes the drink (and a cigarette), he gives the following advice:

“You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away, know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table,
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done. ”

The gambler then mentions that the "secret to survivin' is knowing what to throw away, and knowing what to keep" and that "the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep". At this point, the gambler puts out the cigarette and goes to sleep.

At the end of the song we are told that "somewhere in the darkness, the gambler, he broke even", and that the narrator finds "an ace that I could keep", in his final words. So we asssume that he died.

the setting on the videoclip

NOTE: Although the gambler may have not died in the song and he may have "just been sleeping". This would hardly be "breaking even" (a phrase the song uses) after he states "the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep". 


Chorus: 
You got to know when to hold 'em, 
know when to fold 'em 
Know when to walk away and know when to run 
You never count your money, 
when you're sittin' at the table 
There'll be time enough for countin', 
when the dealin's done 
Every gambler knows that the secret to survive is 
Knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep 
'Cos every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser 
And the best that you can hope for is that I end asleep 

ACTIONS
I met up with a gambler, 
too tired to sleep 
So we took turns 

The boredom overtook us 
and he began to speak 
He said, son I've made a life out of ....
they held their eyes 
....
So I handed him my bottle, 
and he drank down my last swallow 
Then he bummed a cigarette 
and asked me for a light 

and his face lost all expression 
Said, if you're gonna play the game, boy, 
you gotta learn to play it right 

when the dealin's done 
...
when he finished speakin', 
he turned back for the window 
Crushed out the cigarette, 
faded off to sleep 
the gambler he broke even 

Last summer I read:

The Magician and the Cardsharp: The Search for America's Greatest Sleight-of-Hand Artist 

http://www.amazon.com/Magician-Cardsharp-Americas-Sleight-Hand/dp/0805080597/ref=pd_sim_b_2

Vernon set out to find the reclusive cardsharp, discovering a fascinating and dangerous kingdom of games and tricksters along the way of the elusive center deal. 

Johnson details exciting anecdotes of scams, hoaxes, and instances of conjuring . . . His stories unfold like magic." --David Blaine, Entertainment Weekly

In the 1920s, during an era when Americans were crazy for magic, Dai Vernon earned a reputation as a genius of the magical arts. When hard times descended after the crash of '29, the lights of New York faded, audiences dwindled, and Vernon headed west. Little did he realize that his life was about to change.

In Wichita, Kansas, while swapping secrets with a Mexican gambler, Vernon was told a story he didn't quite believe, the tale of a legendary cardsharp who could pull off the impossible--dealing perfectly from the center of the deck. Vernon set out to find the reclusive cardsharp, discovering a fascinating and dangerous kingdom of games and tricksters along the way. Did he finally get his man or did the greatest cardsharp who ever lived just vanish into thin air?

A story with the nostalgic quality of an old-fashioned fable, The Magician and the Cardsharp is a unique and endlessly entertaining piece of history. 

Lawful Mac Bethad vs usurper Macbeth from the northern shores

 see wordlets here

Lady MacBeth is most famous for being the wife and queen of Mac Bethad mac Findlaích (Macbeth). The dates of her life are not certainly known.

MACBETH, king of Scotland (c1005 - d. 1058), was the son of Findlaech, mormaer or hereditary ruler of Moreb (Moray and Ross), who had been murdered by his nephews in 1020. In 1040 he became king.

For a novel on it: see here.  For a Graphic novel form -see Heinle catalogue.

BBC sources: Macbeth was a king of the Scots whose rule was marked by efficient government and the promotion of Christianity, but who is best known as the murderer and usurper in William Shakespeare's tragedy. 

Norman Davies says in the Isles (p. 256):

Macbeth was overthrown by an ancestor of the Stewarts. His reputation had to be assasinated, hw who was not assasin.John of Bordon made him an usurper in the XIV c.; later Andrew of Wyntoun made him the killer of Duncan. In the Renaissance, Boede created our Lady Macbeth persona in Latin, and the historians Buchanan and Hollinshed followed suit. The Bard only add words, full of poetry:

She should have died hereafter;There would have been time for such a word.Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrowCreeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.  

• Macbeth , Scene V

Shakespeare's Macbeth bears little resemblance to the real 11th century Scottish king. For 14 years, Macbeth seems to have ruled equably, also for women and children, imposing law and order and encouraging Christianity. In 1050, he is known to have travelled to Rome for a papal jubilee. He was also a brave leader and made successful forays over the border into Northumbria, England.

He probably became mormaer on the death of Malcolm, one of the murderers, in 1029, and he may have been one of the chiefs (the Maclbaethe of the Saxon Chronicle) who submitted to Canute in 1031. Marianus records that in 1040 Duncan, the grandson and successor of Malcolm king of Scotland, was slain by Macbeth. Duncan had shortly before suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Thorfinn, the Norwegian earl of Orkney and Caithness, and it was perhaps this event which tempted Macbeth to seize the throne. As far as is known he had no claim to the throne except through his wife Gruach, who appears to have been a member of the royal family. Macbeth was apparently a generous benefactor to the Church, and is said to have made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050. According to S. Berchan his reign was a time of prosperity for Scotland. The records of the period, however, are extremely meagre, and much obscurity prevails, especially as to his relations with the powerful earl Thorfinn. More than one attempt was made by members of the Scottish royal family to recover the throne; in 1045 by Crinan, the lay abbot of Dunkeld, the son-in-law of Malcolm II., and in 1054 by Duncan's son Malcolm with the assistance of Siward the powerful earl of Northumbria, himself a connexion of the ousted dynasty. Three years later in 1057 Malcolm and Siward again invaded Scotland and the campaign ended with the defeat and death of Macbeth, who was slain at Lumphanan. Macbeth is, of course, chiefly famous as the central figure of Shakespeare's great tragedy.

Real Macbeth and history in King Hereafter

From wikipedia

Review:
 Dunnett just throws readers into this entirely new and alien world of 11th-century Scotland without much in the way of help. There are some maps and some complex family trees, but most of these make little sense before you’ve read a good chunk of the book.

When I think of the great historical fiction novelists, the first name to come to my mind is Dorothy Dunnett. Jenny first introduced me to Dunnett more than 10 years ago, when she urged me to read the Lymond Chronicles, Dunnett’s marvelous 6-volume series about the fictional 16-century Scottish nobleman Francis Crawford of Lymond. Within 5 years of that first introduction, I had devoured the Lymond books and the even more compelling 8-novel prequel series, the House of Niccolò. But the novel that stands above them all is her one standalone historical novel, King Hereafter, which I just finished reading for the second time.

King Hereafter is the story of Macbeth, king of Alba. That’s right, Macbeth of the three witches, Birnam Wood, and “Is this a dagger I see before me?” Except that Dunnett’s version of this man has very little in common with Shakespeare’s ambitious murderer.

Dunnett’s version of  this 11th-century king is actually the same man as Thorfinn, the Earl of Orkney. I know next to nothing about the history of this period, but I understand that she arrived at this conclusion after doing extensive research into the period. I can’t speak to the likelihood of her being correct, but I can tell you that her version of the man is an exciting figure whose story took my breath away when I first delved into it years ago.

From the writer: 

 Day 1, contract to write the first properly researched historical novel on the real Macbeth, on which there is ample academic material. (younger son then aged 11).

Day 2 (virtually), discover the academic material is mostly ancient and full of gaps, the exception being the deconstruction of Shakespeare, which is popular and has been well and accurately tackled.
Day 3, sort out which few areas have been updated, mostly in monograph form, and verify from the universities that absolutely no historical department is currently re-examining this period.

Day 4, resign myself to collecting and analysing primary material, as soon as I have read through and noted the secondaries. This included sources (including foreign ones) for info on the Celts, the Picts, the Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons, on current laws and customs on marriage, fostering, bastardy, kingship, on the detailed politics of surrounding countries, on biographies of individuals such as Canute, Emma, PopeLeo, etc. etc. Also early charters, monastic annals, fragments of early poetry (plus linguistic studies), the Icelandic sagas, saints' lives, early histories written under the Stewarts, and a lot about the Norman Conquest (plus Norman and Breton charters) to identify the Normans who fled to Macbeth. Also everything relevant in archaeology.

Lovely discoveries about the Archbishop of Dol. Travel, including visits to Rome, Goslar, Vienna, Brittany, Normandy, the Celtic Library at Harvard and all relevant places in the UK, including many visits to Orkney, collecting published material and looking at buildings and museums. Compilation incidentally of 145 interlocking European family trees, laid out in miniscule writing on a piece of wallpaper 20 feet long.
Discovery that the story still didn’t make sense. Awful dawning realisation that it did make sense if Thorfinn and Macbeth were not half-brothers but the same person. Grinding of teeth (original research is not a good idea for a novelist). Decision (courtesy of my publishers) to continue researching, and in particular track to its source every accepted fact that contradicted this theory.

By the end of 1979, evident to me that the Thorfinn/Macbeth case was stronger than any other, and the investigation was now academically viable. Moment of truth; continue for ten years and exhaust all the lines of research? Take another year, and publish the case as it then stood as non-fiction? Or write, with the facts I then had, the novel I had been contracted to write in 1975? I chose to write the novel, beginning in January 1980 and finishing in March 1981 (younger son now aged nearly 17 and forgiving). The rest, as they say is history....."