barba

Toți sîntem niște actori mizerabili. Dumneata joci rolul bărbierului în viață și ai să rămâi un figurant urît cît vei trăi. Mie mi-a fost împărțit rolul de viveur elegant, cu toate că îmi aduc foarte bine aminte, începusem să joc alt gen, și la douzăcei și patru de ani păream de treizeci și cinci. Da, da. Mi-am schimbat genul. Fie că de nebun, fie că de necaz, lăsasem să-mi crească barbă. Și aveam o barbă lungă, frumoasă, ca un popă îndrăgostit. Și lumea începuse să mă ia în serios. Oamenii vorbeau cu respect de mine. Colegii mei prinseră a mă ocoli, prea le păream serios. În schimb, bătrînii mă îmbrățișau cu căldură în mijlocul lor, iar eu, fără să-mi dau seama, mă simțeam bine printre dînșii. Eram student la medicină și toată lumea îmi prorocea o carieră strălucită. Pînă și chelnării, care în privința asta sunt specialiști, vorbeau cu mine ca cu un viitor profesor... Apoi deodată mi-a ieșit în cale o veveriță. O fetiță roșcovană, durdulie, pe care o întîlnii într-un local de petrecere, tocmai cînd o durea un dinte. Am dus-o acasă și i-am scos rădăcina cu pricina. Drept recunoștință mi-a spus următoarele: „Să-ți dau o povață. Rade-ți barba. Să știi de la mine că nici o fată n-are să te placă cu bărboiul ăsta de un cot. Parc-ai fi de-o sută de ani. Te-aș săruta, dar mi-e scîrbă de barbă!” A doua zi mi-am dat jos barba. Cariera de doctor s-a dus dracului. De-acum nu mai îndrăznii să mă duc printre domnii profesori. Mă întorsei iar la prietenii mei zburdalnici și începui să mă afund prin localurile de noapte. Adevărat că acuma nu mă mai stînjenea barba. Avui din ce în ce mai mari succese la femei. Încetul cu încetul ajunsei regele flirtului, regele patinajului, regele cravatelor, regele valsurilor, iar astăzi, la vîrsta de patruzeci și șapte de ani, sînt tot acolo unde eram cînd aveam douăzeci. Rolul de viveur trebuie însă să-l joc până la sfîrșit, trebuie să-l joc... Mă gîndesc de multe ori că, dacă nu mi-aș fi ras barba, astăzi poate aș fi fost profesor la Universitate, aș avea clinica mea, aș umbla în cupeu, aș purta ochelari de aur, aș avea mutră gravă și serioasă... Viața e o comedie, domnule săpunar! E îngrozitor să te gîndești că nimic nu atîrnă de noi, că totul se învîrtește în jurul bărbii sau în jurul mustăților... Apropo, vopsește-mi, te rog, mai bine sprîncenele !...
                                                                                                                                 
1913

rEsHaPiNg REALity

when you cannot fly a flag, you make one up

 and breathe in

a trojan horse the north london way

 everything is international in london. even things you wished were not

 bingo! oh, wait. it's not that one...

with or without you 

the brand new you waits for you at the corner of now and the future 

the stairway to... heaven? 

it is, isn't it?!

tell the truth

spreading the word

to stay free try to be the best you you could ever be

it is nice to be important,
but it is more important to be nice

grow them well and teach them to travel 

just a piece of advice from the not-so-mighty mice 

 and live to bring them to life

ci vediamo li, prima o poi 

open your mind before opening your mouth 

the strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice - Benjamin Franklin 

 one of those times when words are simply not enough

 keep on learning

love letter

life matters

what goes around, comes around

the house with many famous faces

 breaking the most important rule of hide and seek :)

basketball: changing lives since 1891

 dai, compratevi un libro, per carità!

be the rainbow. touch the rainbow.

când citești cărți atât de bune încât nu te poți despărți de ele oriunde ai merge

încet-încet, dispare tot confortul...

finally something you can trust will always be there in this ever-changing world 

soon to be changed into the drink and get drunk. 

simply the best.

his name is Jon Gnarr and he is the Mayor of Reykjavik. and I can only smile thinking how completely ORÐLAUS the rest of his opponents were when it was made official that he had won the election. why, you say? let me try and show you why.

well, maybe the loudly coloured suit alone would not stand as a sufficient reason. thus, allow me introduce mr. Gnarr, or Jón Gunnar Kristinsson as his passport used to say until 2005 when he officially changed his family name, to you a little bit better. before running for Mayor in 2010, he used to be a rather well-known actor and stand up comedian in Iceland. that after having worked as a taxi driver and having been part of a punk band entitled Runny Nose.
and now one may come forward and ask: why would a person like that go for such a position? apparently he was approached by other parties which wanted him as a member, but he refused and decided to start his own one, as a joke, and may I say a very vey good one, and entitle it Besti Flokkurin - The Best Party. that after having ditched The Cool Party name. members? a group of artists, comedians and punk rockers, none of whom have had any prior experience in city-planning or politics, but who helped him record the party's campaign song, an Icelandic version of Tina Turner's famous hit simply the best. simple, yet brilliant and very catchy. therefore effective.

as you can see in their promotional video, the party was making promises like free entrance (and towels) for everyone into the capital's swimming-pools, sustainable transparency, a Disneyworld outside Reykjavik, a polar bear in the city's zoo or a drug-free Parliament by 2020. and, of course, breaking all those promises.
nonetheless, with 37,4% of the votes, Jon Gnarr became Mayor and has been in place for the last 4 years. he is an avid supporter of equality for all and of all kinds, famously dressing up in drag and taking part in Gay Pride parades, although he is happily married to a woman and has a daughter. he is also being called a ‘hands-on’ politician while making changes to the city. 'I have become this weird guy picking up rubbish on daily walks,' as he writes in one of his statuses on Facebook. and in another quite recent one (4th february this year) he says:' Today we talked about peace in city council. I want to make Reykjavik a military free zone. Some say it is irresponsible talk. I don't agree. And I'm also childish and naive. Some are afraid this might offend some bigger nations. I don't want military or military related aircrafts in the Reykjavik airport. I don't want military ships in the harbour. Why can't we try and make one city in the world a military free zone? What harm could it possible do? Would some NATO general break down crying because of it? Just imagine the symbolic meaning of it? What would be the social and economical effects? Imagine! Studies. Research. Conferences. Would other cities follow? I think it is a great idea, not naive but brave because we all know peace can be a risky business and not stupid but creative and clever. We have beautiful songs about peace and love but love is not a feeling. It is action. It's worth the try. I think. What do you think?'
I do not know what others may think, but my thoughts are that you, mr. Gnarr, are one very cool man and I wish there were a lot of places in this world that had more leaders like you in decision-making and taking positions. my country to start off with. 

my fridge

is cooler than yours

check it out

#don'tkeepitallinside

150 years of London Underground

it is quite something when you really sit down a bit and give it some serious thought. 150 years of tube service in London make it the oldest running underground in the world. and, may I add, out of all the ones I have so far been on (and here I include the German ones), the most straight forward. I know, some may complain about all those signal failures and improvement works, about the fares and limited working hours, or the lack of room inside the cars during the overcrowded peak hours and not only. I still find it, regardless of all these above mentioned facts, extremely fascinating how someone thought of building such a thing 150 years ago and how this technology wonder copes with around two million commuters per day in Zone 1 alone. the tube may be old-fashioned when visually compared to, let's say the one in Bucharest (I know, terribly ironic), but I sort of like it this way. its vintage looks add even more value to the overall picture of this mystical place filled with stories and history.
using it is indeed foolishly expensive, it is overcrowded most of the times on the majority of the 11 lines, it does not have a night service (or, at least, not until 2015 it won't), the signal failures will, sooner or later, bring you to the brink of insanity and the weekend line closures can easily have you stranded on a bus that is stuck in traffic, forcing you to re-think your entire schedule for the day. but, in my opinion, the Underground is a sine qua non piece of this amazing puzzle called London as without it, this city simply could not breathe.
and by all means, as Mr. Petro Gustavo, Mayor of Bogota, capital of Columbia, said:
`a developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. it's where the rich use public transportation.` and the London Underground is indeed of use to all  and used by all. 

foto credits: www.tfl.gov.uk
 

signs and lines

pentru strada tipografilor în concediu, faceți la stânga după 30 de metri

 free of charge

be that not as it may

 tell me about it

take certain humans, for example

 and leave thy neighbour's goat alone

 rock on

definitely

 before...

and after

 the line has been drawn

 no Great Britain

in this service you have to pay attention

no way. prove it

nothing defines entirely a heart in love. especially in london united