Oman, March 2017

George Michael, 1963-2016

A voice like Summer rain gone silent.

A woman with a cat waited for transportation to a nearby village. She had fled fighting in Mosul, where Iraqi forces battled the Islamic State. Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Sanahin, Armenia, October 2016

How Trump's brain works

Copyright Roz Chast, The New Yorker, Oct 2016

Tintin

Ivo Dimchev yesterday doing what he does best

1899

The Iranian 'ID card challenge' asks Iranians who they really are (BBC)

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34884408

Paris and Beirut

Iran at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Iran decided to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair because of the invitation made to Salman Rushdie to participate in the event. A symbolic image:

Nisi Dominus, RV 608: Cum Dederit, Vivaldi (Philippe Jaroussky)

Aylan Kurdi

© Khalid Albaih

Oliver Sacks, 1933-2015

Neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks died today at 82, in New York, only two weeks after his last article published on The New York Times, "Sabbath":

 

(...) And now, weak, short of breath, my once-firm muscles melted away by cancer, I find my thoughts, increasingly, not on the supernatural or spiritual, but on what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life — achieving a sense of peace within oneself. I find my thoughts drifting to the Sabbath, the day of rest, the seventh day of the week, and perhaps the seventh day of one’s life as well, when one can feel that one’s work is done, and one may, in good conscience, rest.

 

The obituary of this great man, scientist and author is worth reading.

Nowhere (2009) - Dimitris Papaioannou homage to Pina Bausch

Dimitris Papaioannou homage to Pina Bausch

Que horas ela volta?

A delightful Brazilian movie about social hierarchy and relationships in Brazil:

Beer, book and view over the bay: holiday!

Leaving Isis behind

Images of women crossing from Isis-controlled territory into Kurdish areas have been circulating on social media after they were posted on Twitter apparently by a freelance journalist working in Syria. They throw away their black robes as they leave Isis territory - from black to colour, from danger to safety, from oppression to freedom. I believe these images will soon become iconic.

Carlos Paredes

I recently watched Os Verdes Anos, a 1963 movie by Portuguese director Paulo Rocha.

The soundtrack of the movie is by Carlos Paredes and includes this beautiful track, Portuguese guitar at its best: