"One year ago Matt Eich, 20, and Melissa Turk, 19, were typical college students. Then, everything started changing. Matt won the prestigious College Photographer of the Year contest, Melissa found out she was pregnant, they got married and moved from Ohio to Portland, OR, for Matt's summer internship.
In Love in the First Person, Matt and Melissa, with help from their friends, document their life together as they share their thoughts and fears on the sudden changes in their future. They come to realize that, as Matt says, "Nothing good comes without some sort of struggle," and that beginning a life together is as much about faith as it is about commitment."
"I was about three when my mum first told me that my father, Ian Curtis - who died when I was one - was a singer, but it just seemed normal, like having an uncle who was a tradesman or whatever. I remember hearing Love Will Tear Us Apart on the radio and realising he was known in some way, but I never thought of him as famous. When I was growing up, neither myself nor my mother were in the public eye, and Joy Division were more cult than mainstream. The first time I heard their album Closer, I thought it was out of this world. I assumed all music was done with that level of style and intelligence. As I grew older, it was a shock to discover not everything was that amazing."
"...millions of Muslims voluntarily abstain from food, drink and sex during daylight hours in the month of Ramadan. They watch their co-workers eat and drink throughout the day, and occasionally have to apologise for not joining in due to their religious observance. Fasting for a month makes them aware of hunger as a palpable physical sensation, not a remote occurrence they read about in the newspaper. When the UN tells us that almost a billion people suffer from hunger and malnutrition and 25,000 people a day die from hunger, a faster appreciates these statistics in ways that remain distant to others.
But fasting is not just about giving up food and drink. It's about tending to "the better angels of our nature". The prophet Muhammad said, "If one is not willing to give up bad behaviour during his fast, God has no need for him to give up his food and drink." Muslims are encouraged during this time to be better people, to treat others with more deference. If enticed to argue, the faster is advised to respond: "I am fasting."
There are many ways to be hungry. One can hunger for love, or fame or social justice, but hunger for food seems to curb all other cravings. In being aware of others' hunger, we contribute to a more empathic world."
"Há já algum tempo que perseguia o famoso "Asas Fechadas", também conhecido por "Busto", histórico álbum de Amália Rodrigues já datado de 1962. Naturalmente, a reedição deste, este ano, pela Som Livre, deixou-me com um certo sorriso nos lábios; rapidamente transformado num sorriso cínico. Como é possível pedir-se pela reedição deste disco os módicos 29,50€ que a fnac pede, quando a CDGo o vende a 10,95€..."
"It is no longer possible to have an original opinion on Radiohead.
You've absorbed the deified albums, quarreled over the rock critic pontifications, frowned at the guarded, combative interviews. Thom Yorke's ugly-stick-beaten mug has peered at you from the pages of every magazine known to man; his every word and every note has ignited its own individual Internet flame war. Mass media has bombarded us with Radiohead critique, rendering us unable to generate an unfiltered opinion of our own.
When you listen to Radiohead, you're no longer actually listening to Radiohead -- you're listening to everyone's opinion about Radiohead. It's impossible to separate what you hear from what you've read. You are betrayed by what you know, and you know way too much.
Thus, in order to solicit an honest, undiluted opinion about Radiohead, you'd have to find the proverbial People Living Under Rocks. As People Living Under Rocks are unavailable, let's use fifth graders(...)
We will play a career-spanning selection of Radiohead songs; the kids, equipped with Sharpies and blank sheets of paper, will simply draw whatever the music suggests to them. We don't even give them the name of the band. They don't know anything about Radiohead, the mountain of criticism, the mythology. Their thoughts and interpretations are pure, unsullied, literally unique"(F)
"A monotonia, o sair do emprego frustrado porque afinal o que sempre sonhou não foi estar atrás de uma secretária a beber capuccinos e a empaturrar-se em croissants de volta de um computador, que, à meia volta, simplesmente se desliga, e o projecto pelo qual andava à batalhar à 2 semanas, e que tinha provocado diversas discussões com a sua esposa, desaparece como uma folha de papel que voa ao vento. E ao chegar a casa, tenta relaxar, sentando-se no sofá, ligando somente a aparelhagem, na esperança que se consiga isolar, um pouco que seja, de tudo o que o rodeia.
Desde Setembro de 2005 que somos isto. Uma mescla de emoções, sentimentos, sentidos que se juntam ás influências musicais que vamos adquirindo com o passar do tempo. Somos uma aventura pelo mundo da música, onde 3 rapazes tentam assegurar que o que sentem e vivem é transposto sobre um riff de guitarra, a suavidade de um baixo, e a explosão de uma bateria."
"... religião convenceu o mundo que há um homem invisível no céu, que observa tudo o que fazemos e tem uma listinha de 10 coisas que não quer que façamos e se fizermos qualquer uma delas queimar-nos-á num lugar com lagos de fogo, torturar-nos-á, far-nos-á sofrer as mais miseráveis agruras até ao fim da eternidade. Mas ama-nos!"