tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58526852608465122062009-11-08T17:39:55.839-05:00Specialization is for insects. I am not an insectPolymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-72724722653660637752009-06-28T14:59:00.001-04:002009-06-28T15:01:47.742-04:00

The Legend of the Stone has spread everywhere: who has not heard at least once that the alchemists were looking for that magical elixir which turns vile metals into pure gold, and cures all kinds of diseases, gives youth, perfect health, and and extremely long life?I have just found in Cyliani, a french alchimist who wrote this work in 1831, a most interestic section on how the Elixir works its

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-54016402486447069102009-05-22T11:09:00.002-04:002009-05-22T11:14:29.623-04:00

Talking of "fairy tales", and stories (mythoi) that , albeit seemingly irrational, ring true, are the ones contained in the Bible. Only a few are more powerful than the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning the Resurrection of the Flesh. This passage, quoted by many but mysterious in the highest degree, is known as "The Valley of the Dead Dry Bones".PS I think this prophecy contains an important clue as

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-12992747182826048222009-03-27T10:08:00.001-04:002009-03-27T10:10:26.621-04:00

The Old Masters of the Grand Way recognized Four main paths to Freedom, as clearly stipulated in this fragment from the Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosenkreuz (second day):*****************************************Hospes salve: si quid tibi forsitan de nuptiis Regis auditum.Verba haec perpende. Quatuor viarum optionem per nos tibi sponsusoffert, per quas omnes, modo non in devias delabaris, ad

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-78447343246511387992009-03-01T11:23:00.003-05:002009-03-01T11:33:34.816-05:00

Cioran was a consummate master of lapidary aphorisms.Here is one, dear to my heart:On ne réfléchit que parce qu'on se dérobe à l'acte.Penser, c'est être en retrait.We reflect for no other reason than to avoid doing. To think, is to be in withdrawalIt is true. I have pondered enough. To me, now, there is nothing else but Doing.

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-21790994369715050132009-01-27T08:12:00.004-05:002009-01-27T08:28:47.636-05:00

A couple of years ago, after stumbling upon Colin Wilson' s pronouncement that " Voyage to Arcturus is the greatest novel of the XX Century", I rushed to read David Lindsay's masterpiece, and other works of this neglected master. Lindsay was also a philosopher of sort, and some of his aphorisms are truly sparkling. Here is one, which I shall use in my own autobiography:The conditions for extreme

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-19225916202296209582008-12-21T10:20:00.006-05:002008-12-21T12:01:50.769-05:00

After the mesmerizing photos of the brave Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir I feel like indulging a bit more in this country of sagas, this last speck of Dreamland, the far north.... And what could be better than the voice of Eivør Pálsdóttir? There was a time in which music was magic, conjuring the elementals, and the voice was the wand which commanded the unknown..

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-1311070267779189382008-11-10T11:51:00.003-05:002008-11-10T12:04:30.502-05:00

I have confessed that I believe in Fairies. As a matter of fact, I do believe in more: somewhere, perhaps next door, there is a different world, FairyLand, where fairies and other magical creatures live and prosper. Once upon a time the boundaries between our world, The Gray World, and FairyLand were somewhat more porous. Not anymore. Yet, every now and then, some terse eyes can sometimes cross

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-69846575953158412562008-11-02T13:40:00.010-05:002008-11-07T09:37:57.204-05:00

This fragment is from the notebook of Stefania Grassi, a contemporary tuscan poet, from her 2006 visit to Russia. It was not intended for publication, at least in this preliminary form, but I find it nonetheless extremely powerful as it is, a speck of burning heat in the midst of Moscow's frost.A minimal metrical editing has been done by myself.TRAPPOLASapesse la nevericalcarela striscia di

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-2182560523396752682008-10-19T10:22:00.004-04:002008-10-19T11:19:41.585-04:00

The Libre Vermell found in the monastery of Monserrat is a magnificent example of sacred music with an underlying profane texture.It is precisely this mix of religious and secular, holy and earthly, that fascinates me to the extreme.Here is one of the 10 surviving songs, Cuncti sumus conanentes, in the magisterial direction of Jordi Savall.Earth and Heaven are not that far, if our hearts are open

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-55884884308295718992008-09-26T12:02:00.006-04:002008-10-01T16:44:06.342-04:00

Rene' Daumal was no minor fellow: in his brief life he managed to be a mountain climber, a writer, an orientalist, a poet, and most important of all, a Truth Seeker. Recently I have found a small poem of his which left an indelible impression when I first read it, years ago. Here it is:Je suis mort parce que je n’ai pas de désir,Je n’ai pas de désir parce que je crois posséder,Je crois posséder

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-44366334193555921092008-09-06T18:10:00.003-04:002008-09-06T18:23:35.349-04:00

The same friend who prompted me to look into Chesterton is the motor behind my current reading: I am happily finishing The Great Divorce, by Clive Staples Lewis.It is a small book, so small one can easily carry it in a pocket. Nevertheless, it is filled with wisdom, and uncanny insights. One wonders if it is only the product of a fertile fantasy, or something more..What I found ironic here is

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-52962677661794408552008-08-17T09:01:00.015-04:002008-08-17T11:34:50.183-04:00

Scouring Youtube for a recitation of Clarice Lispector 's A dangerous Clarity I found these two videos. Which one to choose? The first one energetic, vigorous, almost dry, the second more intimistic, introspective, refleshingly humid. I feel a tad like Buridan's ass. Well, there is a way out: I shall not choose. They are both right. A poem, a real one, has many identities, it supports an almost

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-86402607209493533822008-08-10T08:17:00.008-04:002008-08-10T08:37:40.169-04:00

I owe to a great friend the lucky discovery of the austere delights of music for viola da gamba. Amongst the greatest practitioners one must number the Sieur de Sainte Colombe, whose aloofness in life is magnificently reflected in his impeccable music.When the fumes of turbid sentimentalism fog one's spirit, this music acts a potent medicine.

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-60003314661017494362008-08-05T17:29:00.007-04:002008-12-09T19:17:11.643-05:00

Recently I have been taken by the fancy of writing a play. As I have absolutely no precedent to rely upon, I decided to follow the old adage: climb on the shoulders of giants. There is hardly any giant in the world of modern playwriting larger than Henrik Ibsen (just look at his stately face, it tells volumes about the man).So I have spent a few days reading some of his late plays. It would be

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-30210371080317357442008-07-26T05:28:00.006-04:002008-12-09T19:17:11.784-05:00

It was long ago in Pisa. Scuola Normale Superiore, Science Division. The students were waiting anxiously for the famous geometer, Aldo Andreotti, a legend of modern day italian mathematics.The place: a lecture room, in the old Palazzo dei Cavalieri. Time: evening, before dark. November, perhaps. Perhaps not.At a certain point, a clumsy, chubby fellow shows up and announces that Prof. Andreotti

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-42289047806556697762008-07-19T17:42:00.011-04:002008-12-09T19:17:11.949-05:00

Recently I have been visiting, after so many years (too many, alas!), my native homeland, la bella Italia, and have drank once more the heady cocktail of life that Toscana offers to all. In a brief stop from my restless motorcycle rides up and down the Apuan Alps, I was glancing into the greenery of the Mediterranean landscape, and all of a sudden the first verse of Nerval's Myrtho resounded

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-2412563027343934932008-07-09T08:49:00.010-04:002008-12-09T19:17:12.160-05:00

Almost a year ago, in a post on metaprogramming, I announced that I would spend a few lines on my experience with Grails. I must tell you why I needed it: I wanted to develop some quick-and-dirty R&D Web prototype for my former employer, and also another one for my own pet project (a bleeding edge social web application, more later...).I am a java fellow, not too keen on web programming (yes, I

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-20420753487723360962008-07-03T17:17:00.003-04:002008-12-09T19:17:12.243-05:00

Stephen Jay Gould's book Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle is dominated by a grand theme: Deep Time In our age of computers, we talk of billions of years with nonchalance. The fact that we can compute these huge expanses of time fools us into believing that we can grasp them. But, is it so? Can we genuinely understand even, say, a period of mere 100 years? I would answer in the negative. Our entire

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-16359620448985661342008-06-15T08:16:00.003-04:002008-06-15T11:04:57.162-04:00

Someone once said: Energy is the Eternal Delight. He most certainly knew what he was talking about. There are moments where you just need this one: sheer, unmitigated, unbridled energy.When I do need it, I have a single stop to make: Sonny Rollins. Here the old powerful man is playing Tenor Madness. And madness it is, just a bit, but of the most healthy type. Feel the vibes and be happy

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-748609796373405192008-05-20T18:53:00.010-04:002008-12-09T19:17:12.396-05:00

Italian cuisine is chiefly popular for pasta and pizza. Nothing wrong with either one, of course, but I have a dream: that at some point in time risotto will be added to the short list of remarkable italian dishes. Risotto was, with Polenta, the staple food for northern italians, when life was slow and deep. It still reigns amidst the splendors of Northern Italian Cuisine, as a polymorphic and

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-42475678201391111922008-05-18T16:52:00.009-04:002008-12-09T19:17:12.590-05:00

I have been in the USA long enough to understand the implications of the term Ivy League. Here, a country where the social hierarchy, or system of castes if you prefer, is still rather mobile, it is important to establish an elite of some kind. As a matter of fact elite schools have been around since times immemorial, and they still go strong: suffice to think of the French Grandes Ecoles to know

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-24790961728199924422008-05-11T06:51:00.012-04:002008-12-09T19:17:12.929-05:00

Prompted by a friend's praise, I have recently read Chesterton's Orthodoxy. It has not been an easy reading, perhaps simply because in this quite special period of my life I my brain is so overloaded with my own life, that those written words have (rare event indeed!) little part in it.I shall refrain from commenting on the book itself, and its scope: some readers will find it sublime, some

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-684292772203902682008-05-03T17:51:00.008-04:002008-12-09T19:17:13.256-05:00

I have been missing in action for a tad too much, time to come back...In this post I want to make a public announcement:I do believe in fairies.To be sure, I believe in much, much more: elves, ogres, sorcerers, witches, angels, demons, and whatnot. My universe (and I say it with pride) is vast and inclusive.Am I insane? Gullible? Ignorant? I would think not. Quite simply, I believe that there are

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-66502590173792161852008-04-13T11:14:00.004-04:002008-12-09T19:17:13.466-05:00

I have just received from Amazon Behold !!! The Protong, by Stanislav Szukalski. I am deeply indebted to Greg Pass for introducing this uncanny character to me, and I exhort everyone to read the two Szukalski posts on Unurthed. Skimming through the pages of this extraordinary document, a preternatural and even mixture of pure folly and colossally lucid insights, I feel strangely at home. Here

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5852685260846512206.post-58084134826540660172008-03-30T10:44:00.009-04:002008-04-02T08:26:10.082-04:00

In Musical Rambling V, I have paid my tribute to a marvellous female voice in contemporary italian pop music, Alice. But my star is a double one: Alice and Patty Pravo. There is a celestial undertone in Alice, a scent of oriental enlightenments, but I am a man who aspires to be total, to reach out to the completeness of knowledge & experience available to mankind.Therefore, could I forget the

Polymathicushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16426274720342994480noreply@blogger.com3