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Since I restarted going to the Gym recently, I feel quite fit and fine. That's the only advantage of being unemployed. I never had the time before to go to the Gym. After being in my mini van all day making rounds with the daily delivery, visiting the Gym seemed more a chore than relaxation to me.
For the job interview today for a supermarket, I chose a white shirt, clean and pressed, but with jeans. I didn't want to give them the impression I have no strength to even lift up a couple of cardboard boxes of whatever, in starched trousers like an accountant. All set. I picked up my keys and my wallet which I put in my back pocket and wished myself luck silently when I left the apartment.
In the metro jam packed with people all going to work, the smell of perspiration and deodorant created another indescribable smell, not sure whether it's better or worse. While going through the tunnel the window glass became a mirror, that's how I noticed that boy, about 20 or so, a hippy and pale as though he had just been let out from a life behind bars. He seemed to fix his attention on me a lot. I automatically put my hand on my back pocket and, damn, my wallet wasn't there any more. Nor was it in the other pockets. Somebody had stolen it while we jostled onto the train.
I looked around and caught the boy casting me another suspicious look before getting off at a stop. I followed him off and when he noticed me behind him, he quickened his steps. Near the end of the passage when there were just the 2 of us for a whole stretch, I ran up and grabbed him by the shoulders pushing him against the wall.
"Give me the wallet." I shouted at him. "I ... No..." He protested weakly, his voice trembling. I almost felt sorry for him. "Give me the wallet or I'll smash your face in!"
He took the wallet out from his pocket and gave it to me without a word, hurrying to join a group of noisy adolescents now appearing at the end of the passage.
I shoved the wallet in my pocket and started to run as I was by then a little late for the interview. I arrived breathlessly. The chap who did the interview must have a thousand forms of application just like mine before him on the table.
"Can you give me your documentation?" He ordered. I took out the wallet, too late to notice that it was not mine, and the things spilled out of it were an innocent preservative and a small pack of marijuana. Current Mood:  Awake
Tags: Wallet Pickpocket Fiction
The portrait Dali did in 1931 of his beloved Gala, then wife of the poet Paul Eluard, is very small, barely 13,9 x 9,2 centimeters, but it has the added value of it being the very first picture he had painted of her. The Dali foundation had acquired it from Sotheby's in New York for 542,000 dollars.
It was an oil-collage painted on carton, based on a photo of Gala, with the image appearing as if emerging from cigarette smoke. Appeared in this painting all the Dali iconography: the lobster, the bird, the squirrel, the seashell and the ants. All that accompanied Gala with her very full and long hair, symbolising a perfect woman, who observes the spectator with fixed, clear and inquisitive eyes. In the lower part of the carton, one can read 'pour l'oliveta Salvador Dali, 1931'. (Oliveta is diminutive of Oliva), one of the twenty or so endearing names he called her. Amongst them there's this one 'Lionette' (Little Lion) because he said, she roared when she was angry.
He gave this painting to the then couple Gala-Eluard, at that time Gala had stayed with Dali with her husband's knowledge and permission. This fact was confirmed later in their correspondence. But the painting is kept by Eluard. It was later passed onto the hands of Albert Field, a professor in Manhattan, who had seen it in the joint exhibition with Joan Miro in the MOMA. In 1941. He was so impressed by the work of Dali that he decided to dedicate his studio with body and soul, and he soon became a collector of Dali's work.
Dali had given him in that same year an autograph and Field conserved it as a sign of destiny, and he began to compile a catalogue of Dali's art, published in 1996. The portrait of Gala was one of the first 2 Dali painting he bought. When he died in 2003, his collection passed on to his sons, one of them just sold the Gala portrait in the Auction at Southeby's. Current Mood:  Artistic
Tags: dali gala portrait auction
Some people are like Slinkies ... Not really good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don't need it.
Did you know that dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish?
Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
I saw a woman wearing a sweat shirt with "Guess" on it ... so I thought "Implants?"
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake a whole relationship.
We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police.
We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.
War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
- Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
- I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay-checks.
Current Mood:  Amused
Tags: Thoughts Observations
Gana is a gorilla living in a zoo in Germany. I am sure many of you remember her, last year, from papers, magazines, TV and all other media about the tragedy death of her 3 month old baby, Claudio, who died of an acute intestinal infection. For a whole week afterwards she would not put the dead baby down, but carried him every moment day and night. She caressed the baby, shaking him gently as if to try to reanimate it, cleaned and pampered it, touched and stroke it continuously. The scene was so heart wrenching and many tears were shed, by people with sympathy and compassion. It was anything but easy to eventually get her part with the decaying body.
She gave birth later to a new baby Claudia, perfectly healthy and normal. Gana was once again happy, looking proud and content with the baby in her arms. A new birth of a gorilla is always good news, as these animals are of the groups of protected species in danger of extinction. In the case of Gana the public joy has surpassed the frontier of a normal birth of a new life, but a very special symbol of hope and happiness, for Gana, and for that species and, for all the people who are now sharing this joy and blessing. Current Mood:  Accomplished
Tags: Gorilla Gana Claudio Claudia
Luncheon with the president of the United States is a privilege one has to pay for, as discovered by 4 businessmen, who shared a working lunch with President Barack Obama. When the consultants of Xerox, Coca-Cola, AT&T and Honeywell acceded the White House, they were required by the officials there to give the number of their credit cards. A good way to avoid conflicts of interests.
The above image was facilitated by the White House of the presidential plane flying over the statue of Liberty. I think it's one of the most striking shot of the statue, looking so tiny and insignificant compared with the very imposing plane above.
Current Mood: Accomplished
Tags: StatueOfLiberty
It's quite incredible how one's perception of anything at all changes with the passage of time. We all like to think we have our own principles, beliefs and convictions, but none of us are in fact immune to the influence of collective dictations and conditions imposed by laws and regulations, by the culture and etiquette of the period we live in.
No doubt you know about one of the very famous painters, Sargent at the end of the 18th century. I have seen many of his paintings, but somehow I never came across this one titled 'Madame X'; or maybe I saw it before, briefly, but never knew the intrigue behind it.
In 1882, the ambition of Sargent was to seek success at any cost. So much so that he didn't hesitate to ask his friend of the Castillo to intercede for him with his compatriot Madame Gautreau, one of the renowned beauties of the time in Paris, married to a banker and queen of the high society. The lady graciously accepted and Sargent's painting of her, as expected, raised him to the dizzying height. The work was accepted in 1984 but soon accompanied by a monumental scandal. On the enormous canvas (2 metres) Madame Gautreau appeared with one of her shoulder straps of the figure hugging dress slipped off her shoulder, without a shawl to cover her pearl white bare arm.
Madame G. her mother burst into his house, furious and screaming, demanded Sargent to immediately destroy the painting. "My daughter is finished and her husband has to fight in a dual!" The mother of the lady spat at him. The newspaper published a caricature of the painting and underneath it says 'Laugh of the salon. New model for the Ace of Heart'. Sargent, contrite, had to retrieve the painting before the exhibition date was up, and repainted the picture putting back the shoulder strap.
The following year he moved to London, suggested by Henry James. What had happened? Well unlike the paintings of Manet, the woman was not a model but a reputed society lady, and the pose was considered sexual incitement and gesture. Years later, the Kaiser William fell in love with the lady of the painting. Sargent offered it to the Metropolitan of New York for $3,000 (a fifth part of it's value) and it was exhibited as 'Madame X', as one of his star paintings.
Doesn't it seem so outrageously ridiculous now that a shoulder strap sliding off just a few inches from the shoulder would have cost so much trouble and international scandal, that would mark the rise or fall of a person, altering the fate of a profession, even life? Current Mood: Artistic
Tags: Scandal MadamX
Are you familiar with the new software called Travel Coach? I only came across it today. It's sort of a dictionary Com travel guide, with information you might need while travelling abroad. It incorporates an universal dictionary with 8,500 words in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, which you don't just read but listen to, as what you look for would be given to you in voice, with the correct pronunciation, in the language you have chosen.
With vocabulary in specific sections like traffic, circulation, gastronomy, tourist info, public transport, hotels, how to ask for direction, pharmacy, etc. The loud speaker would give you what you seek with correct and perfect pronunciation in the language you want and of course you can make it repeat in case you wish to really learn the words or expressions. Neat huh?
It will also let you put in memory multiple sentences, phrases, and expressions you think you need often. Even several games you can play, all in your chosen language. It offers basic information on cultural or musical events with dates, times, and prices in each of those countries.
Surprisingly the price seems to me rather cheap, at €30. They are sold in shops and in:
Current Mood:  Thoughtful
Tags: Travel-Coach
Diner: Waiter, there's no chicken in this chicken pie.
Waiter: There are no shepherds in the shepherd's pie, either, sir.
Waiter: How did you find your steak, sir?
Diner: I just turned over a chip and there it was.
I'm watching my drinking, so now I only visit bars that have mirrors on the walls.
A man walks into a bar and asks the barman, 'Was I in here last night?'
'You certainly were,' replies the barman.
'And did I spend a lot of money?'
'You spent over £100', replies the barman.
'Thank god for that,' says the man, 'I thought I'd wasted it.' Current Mood: Amused
You know you're in a small town when ...
... You dial a wrong number and talk for 15 minutes anyway.
... You can't walk for exercise because every car that passes offers you a ride.
... You don't use your turn signal because everyone knows where you are going.
... You get married and the local newspaper devotes a quarter page to the story.
... You drive into a ditch five miles out of town and the word gets back to town before you do.
... The biggest business in town sells farm machinery.
... You write a check on the wrong bank and it covers you anyway.
... The pickups on Main Street outnumber the cars 3 to 1.
... You miss a Sunday at church and receive get-well cards.
... Someone asks you how you are, and actually wants to know.
Current Mood: Amused
Tags: SmallTown
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