DECEPTIVE BEAUTY

DECEPTIVE BEAUTY

Deceptive and dangerous is the beauty of the intense pink-orange and red sunsets that close the short winter days.

If you often witness these visual ‘spectacles’ it may be that you live in a wretchedly polluted area like mine. 

You must think I’m obsessed if I even associate sunsets with my periodic returns on the subject

Actually, these sunsets conceal a massive presence of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere.

ISPRA Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e Ricerca Ambientale  explains nitrogen dioxide (NO2):
a reddish-brown gas, poorly soluble in water, toxic, with a strong, pungent odour and strong irritating power. It is a pollutant with a predominantly secondary component, as it is the product of the oxidation of nitrogen monoxide (NO).

Nitrogen dioxide is a widespread pollutant that has negative effects on human health and, together with nitrogen monoxide, contributes to photochemical smog.

Photochemical smog i.e. the formation of secondary pollutants is conditioned by the presence of light radiation in the ultraviolet region.

We grow up learning that the sky is blue, did you as a child ever have the ‘why?’ period?

Why the sky is blue is explained to us by Rayleigh’s Scattering

To summarise the concept in a small format, a bit like espresso 🙂 the scattering of light reflecting off small particles.

I would also point you to an interesting publication reporting on a study of sunsets in paintings, and at this point I cannot fail to mention William Turner

Title of the article published by EGU European Geoscinces Union:
Further evidence of the important environmental information content in the relationships between red and green depicted in the paintings of the great masters.

Assumption: We examine sunsets painted by famous artists as information for the optical depth of particles after large volcanic eruptions. Images derived from precision colour protocols applied to the paintings were compared with online images and found to provide accurate information.

We can imagine what changed in the atmosphere after volcanic eruptions, but there are no volcanoes here, so what happens?

When nitrogen dioxide particles are present in the air, it is as if a kind of geometry is created that obstructs the sun’s rays.

In these cases the red light through an interplay of different frequencies and wavelengths somehow manages to prevail.

Deceptive beauty.

That is why we see sunsets of intense, bewitching colours and allow ourselves to be enchanted by what is invisible to the eyes …

NIRVANA UNPLUGGED

NIRVANA UNPLUGGED

Nirvana unplugged in New York, often known as MTV unplugged is first and foremost a high moment in music history to me.

For our very first chat here on the blog, almost five years ago now, I told you about the cardigan Kurt Cobain wore during the recording of this live show.

Then over time we talked a lot about music but never came back to what is really one of the most important memories for me.

First of all it is the memory of an emotion: the first time I listened to Come as you are without even getting to the end I was convinced that I would never like another song again.

Come as you are is perhaps the only one of Nirvana’s most popular songs, performed even during unplugged, I think precisely because of its characteristic intense intimacy.

But every single song performed during MTV unplugged is beautiful.

The cover of The Man Who Sold the World in my opinion beats even the White Duke.

Where did you sleep last night is poignant to the point of almost materialising Kurt’s suffering.

And then Dumb, About a Girl, Pennyroyal Tea … which is your favourite?

Sadly released posthumously Unplugged in New York with every listen reminds us of the pain and loss of an artist who would now be a grandfather, as his Frances Bean became mother to Ronin at the end of September.

Many tales and anecdotes about 18 November 1993 chase each other all over the place, but what we can all still see is Kurt arriving, and after a simple ‘Good evening’ he introduces About a girl by attacking his guitar ride.

The rest is magic, atmosphere, white flowers, candles, drapes and soft lights, like metaphorical arms that welcome us into an immersion of music and sensations, simplicity and depth at the same time, where everything else is stripped away, the whole world is outside, where all that counts is the lightness of a faint breath destined to fade away but which in reality can only remain engraved in the memory forever.

Extreme vulnerability yet disruptive power.

Nirvana Unplugged is one of the gifts I cherish, it is 30 years old today and yet I’m never tired of listening to it again.

I treasure it along with Kurt Cobain Diaries

Nirvana unplugged

and Montage of Heck, which I saw at the cinema earlier anyway.

Nirvana unplugged

On the off chance that you’ve missed something, I recommend catching up: I find it indispensable to understand the deep torment of a Soul torn between the love of music and the pain of life.

I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything is my fault

I’ll take all the blame
Aqua seafoam shame

THE BARD AND THE QUEEN

THE BARD AND THE QUEEN

The Bard and the Queen is the book I received as a gift from my aunt and uncle, written by Paola Zannoner, known for writing many books for children, and published by DeA Planeta.

Paola Zannoner has a WordPress blog and the first thing she says about herself is that she lives in Florence.

I imagine that living in cities of art can confer the privilege of having an immense source of inspiration.

And it is the subject of inspiration that I would like to put to you, starting with this book.

I would say that there is no need to explain what a story entitled The Bard and the Queen could possibly be about.

I don’t know about you, but I have a particular fondness for Shakespeare.

I started reading the bilingual books, remember them? Every page had the text in the language opposite.

Il Bardo e la Regina

Back in the glorious days, which as you know I often quote, finding ways to learn languages was not a click away, and these books offered the possibility of having the translation available simultaneously, a bit like today’s online translators, and I point out ‘just a bit’ 🙂

Given that it is certainly not easy to choose, do you have a favourite work among all that Shakespeare has left us?

The book The Bard and the Queen mentions some of them in the course of our William’s life, explaining how they came about, that is, from the events that one day after another make up what is a person’s journey.

Do you think this is necessarily so?

I mean: can one write well about something one does not know?

Did Shakespeare live in the shoes of his characters?

Reading this book I visualised all the time the faces of the performers in the film Shakespeare in love.

But while my imagination did not particularly run to the faces, this book has in my opinion the merit of being sensory.

Smell.

The writer’s meticulous research focused my attention on the olfactory sense, succeeding in describing the atmosphere of a London that is not usually considered in this respect.

Have you ever read a book that was able to materialise one of the five senses?

THOUGHTS AT THE WINDOW

THOUGHTS AT THE WINDOW

Today the window of the Advent calendar  gives us thoughts … or rather: the story is from the blog Thoughts at the window

The author is Martina, who tells of herself having worked for a few years in the press office in “The devil wears Prada” conditions … and the thought goes straight away a Is there some reason that my coffee isn’t here? Did she die or something? 

Martina, like Andy, leave her “Miranda” and becomes a primary school teacher, a job that I envy her very much, of course with all the understanding of what it is certainly not a fairy tale.

My primary school teacher is called Virginia and I respect her infinitely. She was a teacher, but also a mother and a great example of Woman.

I still remember the chores for Christmas, the decorations in the classroom and the magical atmosphere of childhood.

And I advise you to go and read the atmosphere that Martina literally painted with the words in her contribution:
Today I was walking through the decorated streets of the neighborhood. Roads that in this season I travel little, too busy by car, not useful if you don’t live there, outside of the daily journey. I went there with the dog, remembering when I wanted her, the doggo on here

THOUGHTS AT THE WINDOW

TUTTOLANDIA

The days go by and we are already at box number 7 of the Advent Calendar, The world of Shioren announced that the creations would include a bit of everything… we started with a drawing, then we had tales and a video.

Today Tuttolandia gives us a poem.

So far, in some cases more, in some cases less, I had first met the authors of the various blogs participating in this initiative, but in the case of Tuttolandia I am faced with a surprise in the round.

Reading what Paola writes about herself, I discover many aspects that unite us, and I smile at the thought of how fate sometimes makes us cross people in the strangest ways.

As I wrote in the comments to Paola, reading the poem she wrote immediately transported me to the kind of Christmas atmosphere that I particularly love. 

Light.
I feel the need for that light so much, and I think it should be a little bit like this for everyone.

You will tell me after reading The Tree and the Star:

The fir

master of the room

fondles himself as

a princess

coated

from rosy crystals

and thirst for

light ribbons.

go on here

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