TEXTOS SUGERIDOS - 06/07/10
Autor: Gilberto | Publicado: 2010-07-06T16:03:00-07:00

John and Tom were drinking beer and talking about their old times. John was still single, but Tom was married, although he didn't seem to be very happy about it. Tom was telling his friend how one mistake, sometimes affected the whole life of a man, when his friend, John, interrupted him. He was impressed by the strange appearance of a woman who was walking towards them. The woman was extremely ugly and she was dressed like an alien. She was wearing an old-fashioned dress and she had a funny hat on her head."Look at that terrible monster! It is coming near us!" - John said to his friend Tom."Don't worry, John! It's my wife." - answered Tom, in a low voice.Then, John realized that he made a big mistake and began to apologize for it. But when Tom saw his faithful friend saying that he was sorry for what he had said, Tom looked at John and said:"It's not your mistake, my friend," said Tom. "It's mine."__________________________________________________ADVERTISING NOWADAYSPeople are starting to blame invasive advertising for the stress in their lives. A few generations ago, people encountered only a few dozen ads in a typical day.Today, 3,000 marketing messages a day flow into the average North American brain. That’s more than many of us can handle on top of all the other pressures of modern life. The fun image that advertising has traditionally enjoyed is now giving way to a much darker picture of advertising as mental pollution._________________________________________________Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908)Machado de Assis was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a house painter and a Portuguese woman. Machado received little formal education. He learned French from a neighboring baker. Machado worked as a printer's apprentice at the National Press, and later he was a salesman and a proof-reader in a bookshop. During these years he started to write stories, poems, and novels. He began to gain fame as a poet in his mid-twenties, and by the late 1860s he had become a successful Brazilian man of letters.   He is widely regarded as Brazil's greatest novelist. Machado wrote nine novels, eight short-story collections, four volumes of poetry, 13 plays, and numerous critical essays. He often satirized middle-class values and behavior. Machado de Assis was an astute observer of the human mind and he revealed its dark sides. He shared with many authors of his period a reformist concern, but his view was colored with irony and skepticism. His most famous novel, Dom Casmurro, is marvelously humorous, and sinister.  Machado creates provoking unresolvable doubts in the reader's mind.  It's no wonder that he is considered Brazil's greatest novelist and Capitu his most fascinating heroine; like the Mona Lisa, much lies hidden behind a superb portrait.  If you've never heard of Machado de Assis, do yourself a favor and seek him out.  He's well worth the effort.________________________________________________Anniversary Hype  Critics can deconstruct his legacy all they want. But it won’t keep  fans from snatching up those Mozart golf balls.  THE BIRTHDAY BASH    By Tara Pepper Whatever  the  source  or  extent  of Mozart’s genius,  there  is  no  doubt  about  his entrenched  popular  appeal.  The  world’s concert  halls  are  gearing  up  for  the  250th anniversary  of  his  birth  on  Jan.  27  with  a year  of  commemorative  events.  His hometown  of  Salzburg  will  host  260 concerts  and  55  masses  devoted  to  his music, and the Salzburg Festival (July 21 to Aug. 31) will  feature performances of all 22 of his operas. Vienna, where  the composer died  in 1791, will showcase  five new opera productions at the restored Theater an der Wien. In November the city will host a festival of new music inspired by Mozart and organized by Peter Sellars, who will also  unveil  his  new,  contemporary  production  of  Mozart’s  unfinished  opera “Zaide”  there  in May.  It will  travel  to Mostly Mozart  festivals  in London and New York  in June and July.  In Paris,  film director Michael Haneke will present a new production of “Don Giovanni” later this month. (Mozart’s official birthday Web site details celebrations at mozart2006.net.)  To be sure, the anniversary means big business. Austria’s national tourist board estimates that the Mozart brand is worth $8.8 billion. Salzburg stores are stocked with Mozart T shirts, calendars, beer, wine, milkshakes, golf balls, baby bottles – even  a Mozart  bra  that  plays  “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” when  it  is  unfastened. “Salzburg and Vienna have both invested huge amounts in the anniversary, both as a means of attracting tourism and boosting their national status,” says London Evening Standard critic Norman Lebrecht.  The anniversary has also prompted a flurry of more useful offerings. In his new documentary,  “In  Search  of  Mozart”,  director  Phil  Grabsky  followed  the composer’s  footsteps 40,000 kilometers around Europe, interviewing conductors and  musicians.  He  provides  new  interpretations  of  his  music  and  letters, depicting Mozart  in his historical context as a hardworking entrepreneur.  “There were  a  lot  of  myths  and  inaccuracies  about  Mozart’s  life  in  [the  1984  film] ‘Amadeus’  that  need  to  be  revised,”  he  says.  Julian Rushton’s  new  biography, “Mozart: His Life and Work,” attributes the composer’s genius less to divine gifts than to perseverance. “We’re moving on to view him a bit more dispassionately,” says  Rushton.  Critic  Anthony  Holden  recently  published  a  study  of  Mozart’s librettist, “The Man Who Wrote Mozart: The Extraordinary Life of Lorenzo Da Ponte,” and Cambridge University Press has issued a lavish new Mozart Encyclopedia.  Perhaps Mozart will best be  remembered  for deepening  the  range of emotion that  instruments  could express.  If  you  see any of  the  commemorative  concerts this year, search out  the moments of greatness –  the cataclysmic  finale of “Don Giovanni,” written months after the death of his father, or the Clarinet Concerto in A. The intense emotional ambiguity makes it nearly impossible to tell if the music is sad or  joyous. At  the heart of works  like  these  is Mozart’s understanding  that the most beautiful, lively phrase can be fully appreciated only in the shadow of its antithesis. When  death  in  a minor  key  lingers  in  the  cello  section,  or  haunts  a sparkling piano trill like unearthly thunder, something close to musical perfection is  reached.  And  no  one  has  come  close  to Mozart  in  creating  those  kinds  of emotional contradictions.      _____________________________________________THAT`S ALL FOLKS!!!GOOD READING AND HAVE A NICE VACATION!!!