last moon

Visualizzazione post con etichetta culture. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta culture. Mostra tutti i post

sabato 24 novembre 2018

London for ever - 34



 I try to totally concentrate on the discussion.

I say that I no longer I’m expecting  anything good from Italian politicians, after just over a century of mismanagement, since  political unity, which has not followed any social unity. Touching obviously dear themes to Giampiero.
“Italy is a bad mosaic of peoples with too many problems to be treated with the same medicine” – he replies to me – “ Only  the worker’s movement can succeed uniting  these different people, giving them a strong  identity to  join together like the fingers of a hand!! "- he concludes closing his right hand in a tight fist.

I tell him that I do not  longer believe in the workers' movement;  neither I  longer believe in the model of state organization inherited by the French Revolution, with tired rites of indirect representative democracy ...

- "You're wrong to take the French Revolution as a point of reference. The real, unique revolution from which the talk is, is the revolution ......... "

-" Revolution? On Saturday night all the serious speeches are banned, "- Michelle says cheerfully -" “Look at what Marcus gave me! "- she says  showing  us a black ball she holds between her  index and the thumb. "" Do you want to roll it? "She turns to me.
- "No, I think I’ll do it" - offers Giampiero promptly. - By the way, who was that guy? "He continues with indifferent air, while already manages  with some cigarette’s  papers  beneath the table in order to arm a joint for the Michelle’s smoke.
- "He's a good customer of mines," replies Michelle, with a strange  air. "He comes from Rotterdam, but he is living from  many years here in London. I met him at Camden Lock where he handles an "stall" of second hand clothing with some of his English members. He’s a bit crazy or at least an original one: he's always stoned as hell, morning to night, because, he says, he believes in smoking, as a flag of peace and brotherhood among young people! "
- "Bullshit," said Giampiero in a caustic tone, "I've met smokers who were total assholes, and I'm not even okay with all the big business that's made of smoke ..."
- "Well, as long as it remains illegal, trade is lucrative; Especially for big dealers who do not even pay taxes on it; It would be enough to legalize it. It almost seems that politicians are afraid of the spread of smoke ...... "- I say to dampen the tone of the discussion between the two.
- "But they do not seem to have the same approach to heroine," Giampiero says, remembering perhaps the lost friends on that street. - " Do you know Michelle what Pino writes from Italy? When the social tension grows, in Italy smoke disappears from the streets and only heroin is found, do you know? But nobody seems to get  to point out that with the heroine they just want to destroy us? Do you light it up? "He asks me in a more relaxed tone, asking me to light the  joint up.
- "It's up to Michelle, really," I say, passing by, after burning its  tip with the lighter.
Martine in the meantime asks Michelle if she understands the topic of the discussion and, after explaining it, says that many rock motion representatives have been mysteriously torn from heroin and thrown down the names of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.
she also adds that she is concerned about the apparently very close relationship between rock movement, music, artists, fans and drugs, all the drugs, from the lightest to the heaviest and most dangerous ones.
Meanwhile the "joint" goes turning around. The dense buzz in the room is interrupted by laughs and laughter, while a thick smoke hood comes from the floor below to the ceiling, becoming more and more condensed.
While the concert had resumed its rhythm, with some skillful voice variation of the solo voice, I  suddenly realized that my throat is dry and my mouth mingled to the point that almost I cannot speak, while at the same time I notice that our beers were still intact on the table in front of us.
I drink directly from the bottle a long haul of Carlsberg Special Brew. I feel that cool liquid in my mouth, coming down my throat, I mentally follow its way  to the stomach and from there spreading with heat; I think of small rivers when they enter the streams and lakes; from  the great rivers that are slow but inesorable in the seas and seas all connected to the oceans, as a single large stream of energy, wrapped in impenetrable cosmic synergies;  even the conductors of our blood, from the smallest vessels to the largest arteries, converge into a single center; and if our bodies have been pulsating in the air for millennia, interacting through immaterial life-force contacts, sometimes conflicting and opposed but always guided in one direction; if our brain contains our present together with the past, and who knows, perhaps even in the future, then where is the center of the universe? The pulsating heart of humanity? The center of Everything Buddha was looking for in the tortuous paths of the mind?
Was this what my brothers were looking for, fleeing the materialties of the West, on the uncertain paths of the East? But why look for it with the deception of acids, with the illusion of opium? Why with the heroine? And if the East, for millennia has absorbed the devastating blow of opium, the most inexperienced and weak civilization of the West, will survive the shots of its most hallucinating and deadly essences?
Take me away, friends, but guide me, do not miss me, love me, as a father loves his prodding son, because I want a dream of sweet awakening, a hope that leads to truth, a journey that has its return to the origin of life .

34...to be continued...

domenica 31 dicembre 2017

The same old story

I think that UK is living, in these times of Brexit, the same crisis which passed forty years ago, when Maggie Thatcher took the power.
Like at those times, UK is experimenting a difficult passage from an open society, capable to accept from abroad all  the best contributes which can come, to a scared misure which risks to transform the Country in a less cultural pole for art and intellectual minds.
 I've always been very fond of the English skill of hosting people from all over the world.
I've admired and been fascinated by the way England has been able to allow anybody in search of freedom and democracy to stay in the Country.
And now, with Brexit, I feel that all this will be more difficult (I hope, nevertheless, it won't be over). I realize there are two opposite souls in England: one opened and one closed.
Which one  is going to win the challenge?

giovedì 13 aprile 2017

Somewhere, sometimes


Somewhere, sometimes

Act Unique in six scenes in Sardinian Language
By Ignazio Salvatore Basile
Translaction in to English by the same author

Characters

Itzocar                                    Tribe’s Chief of Nure- Brother to dead king Gonario

Irìsa                                        His  Wife

Damasu                                  Son to Itzocar and  Irìsa

Gula                                        Daughter to  Itzocar and  Irìsa

Alàshia                                   Sister to  Gonario

Aristea                                    Daughter  to  king Gonario’s  sister , Alàshia

Nakigia                                   Gonario ‘s Widow and sister –in-law to Itzocar

Rumisu                                   Nakigia’s Son –Throne’s pretender

Bithia                                               Nakigia’s Sister - Priestess of  Nure

Iolao                                       Bithia’s Son

Anù                                        High Priest at Nure     
                                     
Elki                                         Anù’s Son  and  Soldier’s Chief

Soldiers and People

King  Gonario                        His Phantom








THE PLOT


On the  tribe of  Nure reigns Itzocar, who rose in command twenty years before,  when  his brother Gonario, suddenly died.
In so doing Itzocar has however willfully ignored the rules regarding the succession imposed by ancient tradition , who foresaw the Regency of Gonario’s widow,  Nakigia, at least until the grown age of his son Rumisu, still a child at the time of death of the king Gonario.
Trying to legitimize and strengthen the usurped power Itzocar and authoritative Anù, Member of the Council of elders of Nure, combine a double marriage: Damasu, designed by his father Itzocar to succeed him on the throne, will marry Aristea (who is daughter to deceased King's sister, Alàshia), while Elki, son of Anù  will marry  Gula (daughter of Itzocar).
But Nakigia, widow to Gonario,  who is contrary to weddings, invited to depose the gifts on behalf of Anù, invites the nobles, priests and the people waiting for the awakening of Bithia Priestess ( mother of Iolaus), who has been doing the rite of incubation, waiting for a forseen dream,  to refuse the wedding at least until Bithia’s reveil.
Rumisu, son to deceased King Gonario and to Nakigia , aims to remove Uncle Itzocar in the command , feeling empowered.
While Nakigia exposes his call to wait, Bithia awakens and describes his dream of doom: a Sun swallowed by the Moon(Song of Bitia).
 Immediately after bursts on the scene Rumisu accusing Uncle Itzocar to have usurped the command (song of  Rumisu).
At the end of  Rumisu’s song, Damasu enters in defense of his father Itzocar.
The two men fight hand-to-hand.
The winner will be Rumisu. The loser Damasu abandons the village.
Rumisu, ripped the stick and the mantle from his uncle Itzocar, that will follow with his wife Irìsa the defeated son, sits on the throne and invites Aristea to join him at his side.
 But Iolaus and Aristea announce their love. And while the people and the guards, let the two lovers pass by, sadly Rumisu will leave the scene defeated by his own lust for power.
The ghost of King Gonario appears to underline the right rules with the song  of Akinta Kamar.
When Gonario goes out of scene, all the people will dance, celebrating the Last Moon, before the sun takes over the power for ever.








FIRST SCENE
 (the scene opens to the central square of the nuragic village of Nure. In the background,   a sacred well of nuragic period and in the distance the towers of the village; the half moon   shines in the blue sky; a mixed group  are dancing  a nuragic appropriate dance of good luck wishing at the double promise of marriage between Damasu and Aristea and between Elki and Gula.
 The choir will be singing the following air)

Come on, come on, lights from the sky
Come on, bright and pregnant
Come to the aiming water
Come on, come on, lights from the sky


Itzocar (standing up and beating the sheep’s stick for thrice, calling for silence)
-        People of  Shardana! Listen to me! I, Itzocar, King of Nure, today  I promise by the present announcement the wedding of my son  Damasu with the nice princess  Aristea ((Aristea,  will cover her face with the veil;  later on this sign, soon interpreted as shyness,  will be revealed  a gesture of refusing !)
 And when the Moon is sank  in the sacred well, nobody will be able to deny this promise  I’m doing in front of you; I call everybody as witnesses  as I confirm the promise with the gifts that my wife  Irìsa will pose hereafter in the well;

Irìsa (she stands solemnly up and goes to put the presents by the sacred well; then one ancill will give her a veil whom with she will tie one the couples)
-         You will be tied together for all your life, in luckiness and sadness! For ever and ever!

Anù (leaving the priest’s assembly will repeat the same Itzocar’s words, inviting Nakigia, being him a widower, to deal the bribes)
-         And I, Anù, Mayor between the Mayors of  Nure, announcing and  pronouncing  the weddings of my son  Elki with the beloved king’s Itzocar daughter , the nice Gula(he will stare at  Gula  who according to tradition will hide her own face with the veil) and because I’m a widower it’s up to the first Priestess Nakigia to present the gifts in front of the people!

Nakigia ( she will solemnly occupy the center stage, which will be promptly released,   but without taking any the gifts of  Anù and leaving drop off the veil brought to her for tieing the other couple ).
         - Is not that the way we used to present our weddings in the sacred well of Garlo in this country! Not even for the ancient habits  and not really while our priestess  Bithia   is still consulting our Gods! (everybody will turn towards the sacred tub of prediction where Bithia is staying, while the heads and the priests shall lift buzz of discontent and protests; but the protest stops while leaping from  the sacred cavern from which Bithia, cataplexy, comes, sustained  by the vestals to occupy the center stage  and  begins to sing)

1. to be continued...

domenica 18 gennaio 2015

The European Constitution

My dear Friend, after the cruel facts of Paris, who saw the death of seventeen people, I would like to offer you my following reflections. Primarily an embrace and condolences to  the entire French nation. Someone one day said " I'm don't agree with you, but I would fight to  death  for your right to say it"
 
You see, my friend, I don't agree on what   Charlie Hebdo publish about religious items, even in my youthness I used to like  religious and  political satire, but what Islamic fanatics have done  in Paris last week, at the redactionne of that satirical juornal, reminds me of the great masters of thought of the Enlightenment.

  In Paris the assassins have fired on our history, our culture, our time. I'm Practicing Catholic, but I also believe that's a great value to be able to choose between to believe and not to believe

Islamic terrorists killed the Charlie's vignettistes but  they did not kill the achievements of our civilization and our freedom.  

There is a gap between our culture and  those of the other continents of the world, those of other civilizations of the earth; but if we make a correct comparison we must speak of Christian culture from one hand and Islamic culture on the other.  

And now the question is: who is going to  fill the gap that separates our civilizations?  

I believe that would be a mistake to think that Islamic need to live their own age of Enlightment or, even worse,  than we should give up our achievements of liberty.

  And so? I think we Europeans we must report to the Islamists as Christians: both are civilizations and we must compare, trying to understand each other. I lived in Italy the epic of terrorists; there was, at that time, someone who said that the terrorists were mistaking  companionsI don't know  if also Islamic terrorists are brothers who are wrong (that's a problem to be solved inside the Islamic culture); but I think that we, Europeans, all together, we need to be united to better relate to other cultures.  

Let's adavance with the  European Union, then, my friend. Let's drop the differences e mistrust between us and let's walk all together, not against, but forword to other cultures, affirming and confirming our cultural acquisitions. I embrace you and sent my best wishes for a 2015 full of happiness.

giovedì 6 marzo 2014

The long man's trip on the way of knowledge


 
 

Since long time past manhood has wondered about the most inner significance of our presence on the earth.

I imagine our primitives ancestors, still wrapped in their beast’s furs, asking themselves the meaning of the stars in  the sky, some brighter , some farer, some fading away, like falling down; or  they might be thinking why the rising and the setting down of the sun, the pouring rain, the flashing of the lightening, preceding the boasting thunder; and the mystery of flying , the fascination of dreams, the secrets in the silence, the magic of a new life coming out from feminine bodies.

They started worshipping the sun, the waters, the eagle, or the great mother because of these unanswered questions. May be the first spark of this craving of knowledge has started around the fire, old men telling stories to be remembered by the young of the tribe.

The quintessence of hundred thousand years of this human research can be found now in the great religious books of humanity: the Indian Vedas and Upanishads; the Tibetan Book of Death; the Wisdom Books of the Holy Bible; or even in the mysterious books of esotericism.

You might believe or not believe in God (I personally do); and we can discuss for thousands of years  Which One is the Only God (but I know there is only One God, anyway); some can call God the Cosmic Essence of the Universe and some others can crush the Unity of God in to a Pantheon of Gods (like ancient roman and Greek did and like Indians still do); you can even keep on worshipping idles and totems (as matter of fact money and lust are not  but the modern gods of contemporary times); but if have spent your life without searching a reason to be born, then your life has passed you by uselessly.

Through  centuries and millennia men have even abused of the power of knowledge, misusing magic formulas for cheating poor people, frightening them with the shadows of God (God Himself cannot scare anyone, because He can only love); the Books themselves were instruments of power: those capable to read them on them the sacred truths could exercise a great power on those ignoring the meaning of the signs traced on their lines.

This special issue of Arspoeticamagazine deals with the matter of knowledge in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

 Angelo Ruggeri shows in a selection of works, how Milton, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Torquato Tasso and other great minds of this century, have handle and dealt with such a sensitive subject and  why the established power counteracted their thoughts.

In the same century, but in the last part of it,  I set my novel “Four voices, only one story”, where four main writers and their friends of the Academia of Lamole, in Tuscany, are compelled to hide away from Holy Inquisition because they have decided to translate in to vulgar language the Sacred Scripture against the 1596 Pope Clemente VII’s Decree, who wanted the Holy Bible still to be published only in Latin ancient language (incomprehensible to most  people).

Still remains a great question: up to where can manhood  push his thirst of knowledge? Is it right to go beyond anyway? Is it correct to restraint the longing of manhood to break all the frontiers of knowledge? And who is titled to check scientist, poets and all the men who feel free to research the truth anyway and anywhere? Such questions are still of topical actuality and is not in the intentions of our magazine to dare to give any answers to them. I can personally only say that when I was much younger than today, my answer would be simply aimed to deny any chance of control or censorship.

But now I’m not so sure anymore.

 

Next on Arspoeticamagazine

martedì 15 ottobre 2013

Erasmus Plus

 It's official now. From the 1st of January 2014 European's Lifelong Learning Projects Comenius will be replaced by Erasmus +.

As well known by the school enviroments Comenius has financed, trough the years thousands of projects, allowing several millions of students, all along European Union, to travel around changing emotions, languages and cultures.

The semestral Irish presidency has now financed the new culturul project from 2014 till 2020.


Detailed information about Erasmus + will be published on http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/ as soon as possible.
Then, boys and teachers: make up your projects and have a good journey with the new Erasmus + LLP!