On 31 July 1703, Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, author of “Robinson Crusoe” and “Moll Flanders”, was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after penning the pamphlet “The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; Or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church”. English Dissenters were a group of Protestants… Read More Defoe and the Pillory
“Talvolta noi crediamo di sentire la nostalgia di un luogo lontano, mentre in verità abbiamo nostalgia del tempo che laggiù abbiamo trascorso, quando eravamo più giovani e più freschi. In tal caso il tempo ci inganna, prendendo la maschera dello spazio.” “Scuri in viso lasciamo passare senza goderne, infinite ore piacevoli e serene; ma quando… Read More Nostalgia
And what is Life? — An hour-glass on the run, A Mist retreating from the morning sun, A busy, bustling, still repeated dream; Its length? — A minute’s pause, a moment’s thought; And happiness? — A bubble on the stream, That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought. […] John Clare – English poet… Read More Life (John Clare)
On 27 July 1955 Chuck Berry‘s first hit record, “Maybellene” entered the Billboard R&B chart and propelled by its persistent driving rhythm, remained on the pop charts for eleven weeks. It is considered a pioneering rock and roll song., and one of the first records to be a hit on the rhythm and blues, country… Read More 🎶 Maybellene 🎶
Exactly one hundred and forty-five years ago, on 26 July 1875, Charles Earl Boles (or Bowles) wearing a flour sack over his head with two holes cut out for the eyes, robbed his first stagecoach in Northern California. This outlaw was an elegantly dressed man in his mid-fifties with deep blue/grey eyes, heavy eyebrows and… Read More The gentleman bandit (and poet)
Oggi, 25 luglio, si celebra San Cristoforo, il patrono di viaggiatori e automobilisti, quello che una volta appariva su magneti e medagliette da tenere in macchina come protezione o portafortuna. Secondo la leggenda il santo gigante fece attraversare un fiume, trasportandolo sulle proprie spalle, il bambino che poi si sarebbe rivelato il Cristo. Il nome… Read More San Cristoforo (e i suoi fardelli)
Peter Sellers (English film actor, comedian and singer) died from a heart attack forty years ago, on 24 July 1980. He was 54 years old. One of his first funny performances is in “The Party”, a 1968 American comedy film. He appears as painfully polite unknown actor from India who mistakenly receives an invitation to… Read More Peter Sellers & “The Party”
Haile Selassie I born Ras Tafari Makonnen (23 July 1892 –1975) was regent of Ethiopia from 1916 to 1930 and emperor from 1930 to 1974. ♠ “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of… Read More Haile Selassie on the Triumph of Evil
♣ “If it is committed in the name of God or country, there is no crime so heinous that the public will not forgive it.” ♣ “There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, and nothing worth killing for.” Tom Robbins – American novelist (born on 22 July 1932) ♣ “Se… Read More Tom Robbins
“I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started. […] … Read More Hemingway’s Night
words and music and stories 