please whisper

Ok, maggioranza minima (quella assicurata dal premio di maggioranza) alla Camera.
Maggioranza ancor più labile al Senato (se Napolitano ha la febbre, una legge non passa).

Già mi immagino...
Riforma del lavoro? Bertinotti vota contro
PACS? Rutelli vota contro (meno male)
TAV? I Verdi votano contro

Paese paralizzato, elezioni tra sei mesi. Spero di sbagliarmi.

Perdonatemi se resto ancora nel mondo fantastico (giuro che dal prossimo post torno a quello reale), ma a chiusura di campagna elettorale mi piacerebbe fare una riflessione su alcuni "prodotti marginali" del bailamme, magari non proprio inerenti la politica ma di sicuro (almeno per me) interesse.

* I duelli tv hanno lanciato il Berlusca in versione "onanista della parola" (che considero un merito - uno dei pochi): espressioni come "astruseria", "spudoratezza", "mi stropiccio gli occhi e le orecchie", "dante causa" etc sono davvero succulente, bellissime. Chapeau.

* La comunità internet non è virtuale, è reale. L'incontro dei "coglioni" di Roma (peccato non fosse stato organizzato a Milano!) lo dimostra: è una comunità che dispone di un veicolo di comunicazione rapido ed efficace e che sta imparando l'"auto-rank", suo principale problema di efficienza finora.

* (Spin-off tragico dell'insulto berlusconiano agli elettori di centrosinistra) E' ormai assodato: si vota per fare il proprio interesse. Valori come la solidarietà, l'ambiente, la responsabilità verso gli altri, gli altri tout-court diremmo, non contano. Che bellezza. Ma poi, il proprio interesse è risparmiare qualche euro per l'ICI o vivere e lavorare in un Paese sano?

Interrompo il flusso di spunti reali per immergermi (solo per un po') nel mondo fantastico.

Nel mondo fantastico, il 9 aprile si vota.
La mia posizione è piuttosto fedelmente rappresentata dai risultati di questo buon test, che mi posiziona piuttosto vicino alla Margherita, poi ai Ds e ad altri partiti del CentroSinistra, ma piuttosto distante dagli estremismi, e dalla Rosa nel Pugno. Partito questo - per inciso -  che pare essere, da quanto leggo in giro sulla rete, il partito ufficiale degli indie-blog italici... e devo dire che questo  - al di là del mio giudizio politico personale - conferma un po' una certa uniformazione degli indie-blog italici stessi e il mio sospetto che essi siano una sorta di villaggio chiuso su sé stesso ed autoreferenziale (tutti a osannare i Bloc Party, tutti a osannare gli ODP, tutti a osannare gli Amari, tutti a farsi pippe mentali sull'iPod, tutti per i 4 SI', tutti contro Ruini, e via dicendo) (sostituire nella frase precedente "tutti" con "quasi tutti": non voglio affatto generalizzare né valutare le preferenze se non per questioni di merito).

Il test di cui sopra peraltro è parte di un progetto chiamato openpolis che, sullo schema di Wikipedia, sta mettendo in piedi un'interessantissima piattaforma di conoscenza socio-politica. Molto utile, per esempio, la pagina dei temi, in cui, per 25 dei principali temi dell'attuale dibatitto politico, vengono presentate le posizioni espresse da ciascun partito. Davvero un bel lavoro.

Aloha, j_

...
My name is Salt
I am the reason there is salt in the sea
And I'm the reason there's salt in your tears

That's how I come back
Like boiling water everything will evaporate, dissolve and disappear
I'll be there as a taste on your cheek
...

from "Mugimama, Is This Monkey Music?" (Accidental Records, 2005, Iceland).
download this song (m4a)

...

I like your name
It sounds like Paris
...

...and I'm sure it's got nothing to do with that Hilton stupid one.
download this song (m4a)

La città è uno scrigno di storie e di racconti presenti, passati e futuri. È un romanzo.
La città è un semplice conglomerato di persone, e al contempo complesso distillato geografico ed emotivo di una nazione. Non è la dimensione di un luogo che ne fa una città, ma la velocità dei suoi abitanti o la foggia dei loro abiti, il frastuono delle loro voci.
Ma soprattutto la città è crocevia di storie. Gli uomini e le donne che vi abitano sono racconti affascinanti, infinitamente complessi. Anche la persona più noiosa e ordinaria è un racconto che non teme il confronto con la trama più bella e ricca di Tolstoj. È impossibile rendere la bellezza e l'incanto di un'ora nella giornata di un qualunque abitante (...).

da "Eureka Street", di Robert McLiam Wilson (Fazi Editore, 1999)

1. Fog: "10th Avenue Freakout"
2. Midwest: "Whatever You Bring We Sing"
3. dEUS: "Pocket Revolution"
4. Matt Elliott: "Drinking Songs"
5. Oneida: "The Wedding"
6. Bright Eyes: "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"
7. Low: "The Great Destroyer"
8. Four Tet: "Everything Ecstatic"
9. Antony & The Johnsons: "I Am A Bird Now"
10. Sigur Ros: "Takk..."

Please post your own ranking in the comments (idea from kosmo)...
Download a song (mp3) from "josi_'s best album of 2005" (wow!!!): Fog_The Rabbit

Please could you stop the noise I am trying to get some rest
from all the unborn chicken voices in my head

What's that?
...

from "Ok Computer" (you all already know).

Does love mean sacrifice?
Can hearts just turn to ice?
Will time tell wrong from right?
With a little luck we'll survive this fight
...

What lies benath our words?
With sex we're blessed and cursed
Is truth a joke or worse?
Every deep believer is bound to burst

When all the thinking's done
Who's bored and who had fun?
I can't believe this song
I will drink for you 'till the morning comes

Do we believe in love?
Do we exist at all?

from "A Song About A Girls" (Chikaree, 2004, Belgium).
My favourite band. Enough said.
download this song (live version) (mp3)

...
The ghost ship is sailing out
filled with the dreams that you didn't want
but when it sinks they wash up on the shore
crawl the path back to your door

Secrets are soon to be discovered
and hidden things will always be found
forbidden words or slowly moving hands
just like words they make no sound

from "Slowblow" (Mobile, 2004, Iceland).
Slo-fi.
download this song (mp3)

Walking along the left bank of the river
it’s good to let all troubles go with the flow
A bare branch waits for its renewed dress
all bugs rise and leave their shelters
...

Winter gently closes his eyes
and retires to north
I run up on my hill and i spit down on all
I stretch myself and i smile
warmed by the coming season

from "Whatever You Bring We Sing" (Homesleep, 2005, Italy).
Indie-folk.
download this song (m4a)

When you called, your voice was so grave
I knew it would be the last time we spoke

You said something that I could not bear
to hear with my own ears the last time we spoke

And it's a hard time trying to get through
all the days that drag on thinking 'bout you

Nothing hurts like someone who knows
everything about you leaving you behind

When you called you might as well have killed me
and that was the last time
the last time we spoke

from "Blinking Lights And Other Revelations" (Vagrant, 2005, Usa).
download this song (m4a)

...

If I could stay here, under your idle caress
and not exit to the world and phoniness and people.

When all the noise has left your head
Will someday you rise off the bed?
I’ll be there to lift you, lazybones.

from "Irresistible Bliss" (Slash, 1996, Usa).
Deep slacker jazz.
new feature!!! download this song

***** Bright Eyes_A Spindle, A Darkness, A Fever, And A Necklace
"Fevers And Mirrors"

**** dEUS_Secret Hell
"Worst Case Scenario"

**** Eels_Manchild
"Beautiful Freak"

**** Eels_Last Time We Spoke
"Blinking Lights And Other Revelations"

**** Eels_Elizabeth On The Bathroom Floor
"Electro-Shock Blues"

**** Fog_Under An Anvil Tree
"Ether Teeth"

**** Gorky's Zygotic Mynci_Stood On Gold
"How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart"

**** Gorky's Zygotic Mynci_Single To Fairwater
"Sleep/Holiday"

**** Grandaddy_Goodbye?
"Excerpts From The Diary Of Todd Zilla EP"

**** Grandaddy_So You'll Aim Toward The Sky
"The Sophtware Slump"

**** Low_Point Of Disgust
"Trust"

***** Midwest_Ripple And Rise
"Town And Country"

***** Midwest_Warmed By The Coming Season
"Whatever You Bring We Sing"

***** Mojave 3_Prayer For The Paranoid
"Excuses For Travellers"

**** Radiohead_We Suck Young Blood
"Hail To The Thief"

**** Radiohead_Exit Music (For A Film)
"Ok Computer"

***** Sigur Ros_Svefn-g-englar
"Agaetis Byrjun"

**** Sigur Ros_Ny Batteri
"Agaetis Byrjun"

**** Sparklehorse_Saint Mary
"Good Morning Spider"

**** Sparklehorse_It's A Wonderful Life
"It's A Wonderful Life"

***** Sparklehorse_Sea Of Teeth
"It's A Wonderful Life"

***** Sparklehorse_Babies On The Sun
"It's A Wonderful Life"

***** Sparklehorse_Morning Hollow
"It's A Wonderful Life"

**** Sparklehorse_Homecoming Queen
"Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot"

**** Sparklehorse_Spirit Ditch
"Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot"

**** Spiritualized_Stay With Me
"Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space"

**** Spiritualized_Broken Heart
"Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space"

***** Zita Swoon_Selfish Girl
"A Song About A Girls"

**** Zita Swoon_100
"A Song About A Girls"

***** Zita Swoon_Little Marie
"Plage Tattoo/Circumstances"

I'm thinking about you all the time
is it the howl of a devil or a sound divine?

...

from "A Song About A Girls" (Chikaree, 2004, Belgium).

Have you seen her smile?
Doesn't it just make you wanna cry?

...

from "How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart" (Beggars Banquet, 2003, Wales).
Dream pop.

You gotta be a princess from a lovely fairy tale
'cause every look you leave
you leak a story on your trail

...

Oh my heart been beating sad
Can't help thinking about times that we've had
pictures on walls to minds that fall
it's hard knowing some people don't care at all

But happiness will come our way
and magic comes, just not today
when ships are sailing across the sea
the lights are on, inside we never see

...

from "Sleep/Holiday" (Sanctuary 2003, Wales).
Dream pop.

I'm gonna tell you what you need to hear
And i'm a little too late
By three or four years
And it may not make much sense
Now that we are apart
But i'm going to stop pretending
That i didn't break your heart

You see i never thought enough of myself
To realize that losing me could mean
Something like the tears in your eyes
And i want to tell you i'm sorry
And it's too late to start
But i'm going to stop pretending
That i didn't break your heart

And it's christmas eve
Years down the line
Sitting here wishing i'd treated you better
When you were mine
And i have no way of knowing where you are
But i'm going to stop pretending
That i didn't break your heart

I didn't mean to hurt you
I didn't know what i was doing
But i know what i have done

from "Blinking Lights And Other Revelations" (Vagrant, 2005, Usa)

...

You are worth hundreds of sparrows

...

from "Good Morning Spider" (Capitol, 1997, Usa).

Apparently before Jed had left us
he wrote some poems
wrote them for no-one
I guess I'll show them
here's one of Jed's poems

You said I'd wake up dead drunk alone in the park
I called you a liar but how right you were
air conditioned TV land, 20 grand walk to the bank
with shakes from the night before, staring at the tiki floor
high school wedding ring keys are under the mats
of all the houses here but not the motels
I try to sing it funny like Beck, but it's bringing me down
lower than ground
beautiful ground

Test tones and failed clones and
odd parts made you

from "The Sophtware Slump" (v2, 2000, Usa).
Dream-rock.

dEUS: "Pocket Revolution" ****
Fog: "10th Avenue Freakout" ****
Grandaddy: "Excerpts From The Diary OF Todd Zilla EP" ****
Midwest: "Whatever You Bring We Sing" ****
Oneida: "The Wedding" ****

CocoRosie: "Noah's Ark" ***
Death Cab For Cutie: "Plans" ***
Finn.: "The Ayes Will Have It" ***
Four Tet: "Everything Ecstatic" ***
Fr Luzzi: "Happiness Is An Overrated Value" ***
Low: "The Great Destroyer" ***
Matt Elliott: "Drinking Songs" ***
Mercury Rev: "The Secret Migration" ***
Mugison: "Mugimama Is This Monkey Music?" ***
Sigur Rós: "Takk..." ***
Xiu Xiu: "La Foret" ***

Damien Jurado: "On My Way To Absence" **
Eels: "Blinking Lights And Other Revelations" **
Nine Inch Nails: "With Teeth" **
Yuppie Flu: "Toast Masters" **

...

Look at all the people with their heads down in their hands
they put the flowers on the box that's holding all the sand
that was once
that was once
you

...

from "Electro-shock Blues" (Dreamworks, 1998).
Lagna-rock.

...

Angels 'round here don't sing
they have a curse upon me

...

You don't have to be impatient
for something that ain't coming

from "Pocket Revolution" (V2, 2005, Belgium).
Alternative.

...

Becky wondered why she'd never noticed dragonflies
Her drag'n'click had never yielded anything as perfect aas a dragonfly

...

from "Sumday" (V2, 2003, Usa).
Dream-rock.

...

Let the poets cry themselves to sleep
...

from "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning" (Saddle Creek, 2004).
Lagna-folk.

...
She's a rose, she's a pearl, she's a spin on my world
all the stars make their wishes on her eyes
...

from "Blood Money" (Anti, 2002, USA).
Drunken, smoky, surreal jazz-bluesy poems.

I like to sit and cry in front of my tv
I like to think of words to scream
about all it is I am and all it is I wanna be

...

from (Moondog Jr) "Every Day I Wear A Greasy Black Feather On My Hat" (Island, 1995, Belgium).
Experimental jazz-bluesy tunes.

You are a car, you are a hospital
I'd walk to hell and back to see you smile
on saturday

...

from "Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot" (Capitol, 1995, USA).
Dream-slo-fi.