On 6 September 1951 American writer and visual artist William Burroughs, a prominent figure of the Beat Generation and post-modern literature, killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, aged 28. Actually, they had never formally registered their relation as a civil or religious marriage, but they used to refer to themselves as a married couple: a… Read More 🏹 The William Tell Act 🏹
“Una notte di agosto, di quelle agitate da un vento tiepido e tempestoso, camminavamo sul marciapiede indugiando e scambiando rade parole. Il vento che ci faceva carezze improvvise, m’impresse su guance e labbra un’ondata odorosa, poi continuò i suoi mulinelli tra le foglie già secche del viale. Ora, non so se quel tepore sapesse… Read More Una notte d’agosto…
Cesare Pavese, nato nel 1908, morì a Torino nel 1950. Quella del 1950 fu un’estate torrida, quasi come l’attuale. Neppure di notte si riusciva a recuperare un po’ di sollievo dall’afa opprimente. Se al malessere diffuso si aggiungevano problemi e angosce personali, c’era il rischio di venire risucchiati in una voragine oscura… Fu in quella… Read More Il giorno in cui Pavese…
Christopher Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 1986) English-American novelist 📷 “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking […]Some day, all this will have to be developed, carefully printed, fixed.” (Goodbye to Berlin ) 📷 “Io sono una macchina fotografica con l’obiettivo aperto, completamente passiva, che registra… Read More Christopher Isherwood
“Legal Midnight Hour” by Carl Sandburg, Well, the dying time came, the legal midnight hour, The moment set by law for the Chair to be at work, To substantiate the majesty of the State of Massachusetts That hour was at hand, had arrived, was struck by the clocks, The time for two men… Read More “Legal Midnight Hour”
Federico García Lorca (1898 –19 agosto 1936) PAESAGGIO La sera confusa si vestì di freddo. Dietro i vetri appannati tutti i bambini vedono tramutarsi in uccelli un albero giallo. La sera è distesa lungo il fiume. E un rossore di mela trema sui tetti. PAISAJE La tarde equivocada se vistió de frío. Detrás de los… Read More Paesaggio
Esattamente dieci anni fa, il 18 agosto 2009, fa moriva a Milano, Fernanda Pivano, detta Nanda, che era nata a Genova nel 1917. Scrittrice, giornalista e critica musicale, a lei va il merito di aver valorizzato in Italia gli scrittori della Beat Generation, come Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs e Gregory Corso. È… Read More Nanda
On 15 August 1877 Thomas Alva Edison made the first audio recording on a phonograph This was not his first invention, but it was the one that first gained him wide notice. He was working on an improvement to the telegraph: a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape,… Read More Edison’s Phonograph
Anne Sexton (1928 –1974) was an influential American poet who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967. She was known for her highly personal poetry, dealing primarily with her long battle with depression, suicidal tendencies and various intimate details of her private life. Though she was raised in a comfortable middle-class… Read More Anne Sexton
“The Starry Night”, inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s painting of the same title, is a short, free-verse poem by Anne Sexton where she identifies with another tortured and suicidal artist and makes comparisons between her own life and the masterpiece she is talking about. It begins with a quote from one of Van Gogh’s letters… Read More “The Starry Night” (2. analysis)🌃
