If you're going to try, go all the way...

Je suis tombée récemment sur ces mots de Charles Bukowski, que je vous traduis ci-dessous:

“If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.” Charles Bukowski, Factotum

« Si tu dois essayer, va jusqu'au bout. Le cas échéant, ne commence même pas. Ca peut signifier que tu perdras tes copines, femmes, proches et peut-être même ta tête. Ca peut aussi signifier que tu ne vas pas manger pendant trois ou quatre jours. Ca peut signifier que tu vas te geler sur un banc. Ca peut signifier la prison. Ca peut signifier la dérision. Ca peut signifier la moquerie – l'isolation. L'isolation c'est le cadeau. Tous les autres, ce sont des tests d'endurance, d'à quel point tu veux vraiment le faire. Et, tu le feras, en dépit des rejets et des pires improbabilités. Et ce sera mieux que tout ce que tu peux imaginer. Si tu veux essayer, va jusqu'au bout. Il n'y a pas de sensation meilleure que celle-là. Tu seras seul avec les dieux, et les nuits s'enflameront de feu. Tu chevaucheras la vie dans un parfait fou rire. C'est la seule bataille qui vaille. »Charles Bukowski, Factotum

Priorities...

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed..

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.


author unknown -- happy to attribute if somebody knows

Batman/ Holidays

Une petite citation pour la route

"Listen to your fucking mother". Ma Maman/Super Caillera (http://uneautrefilletoutenue.blogspot.fr/2011/02/sur-la-nourriture-ma-maman-le.html)

Cash.

Juste parce que çà fait zizir, que l'art demande toujours un peu un effort, et parce qu'on est dimanche soir.

Et puis aussi parce que.

Une jolie tirade dont je vous livre la trad', tirée de "Walk the Line", le biopic Johnny Cashien.

"You know exactly what I'm telling you. 

We've already heard that song. A hundred times. Just like that. Just exactly how you sing it (…)

If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing one song, one song, people would remember before you're dirt, one song that would let God know what you felt about your time here on Earth, one song that would sum you up, you tellin' me that's the song that you'd sing ? (…)

Or would you sing something different? Something real? Something you felt?

Cause i'm telling' you right now, that's the kind of songs people want to hear, that's the kind of song that truly saves people.

It ain't got nothing to do with believing on God, Mr Cash, it has to do with believing in yourself."

***********************************************************************************

"Vous voyez très bien ce que je veux dire.

On a déjà entendu cette chanson. Une centaine de fois. Exactement comme çà. Tout à fait exactement de la manière dont vous la chantez (…)

Si un camion vous écrasait et que vous étiez en train de crever dans le fossé, et que vous aviez le temps de chanter une chanson, une chanson, dont les gens se souviendraient avant que vous ne redeviendiez poussière, une chanson, qui ferait savoir à Dieu comment vous vous êtes senti sur Terre, une chanson qui vous résumerait, vous me dites que c'est cette chanson que vous chanteriez?

Ou bien vous chanteriez quelque chose de différent? Quelque chose de vrai? Quelque chose que vous avez ressenti?

Parce que je vous le dis maintenant, Mr Cash, çà n'a rien avoir avec la foi en Dieu. Ca a à voir avec la foi en vous."

Theese boots are made for walkin'...

... And that's just what they'll do.

Idée (s) ...

2011 a été encore plus agitée et prolifique que prévu, cependant, un certain nombre d'idées, de citations, de phrases, de mots restenet en suspens, et je les rassemble donc ici pour qui voudra en faire des brillantes choses en 2012...

Je nomme donc cette liste d'embryons: Idées en vrac de best-sellers pour 2012; liste non-exhaustive et inachevée:

- Le garçon qui miaulait

- Le sapin qui ne fêta pas Noël 

- Demain c'est bien

- En guitare c'est beaucoup plus facile de faire un beau solo que d'accompagner. (Comme dans la vie).

- Chers garçons, désolée, pardon, merci, je vous aime.

- À ce stade, pour faire tout ce que j'ai à faire, j'ai 3 options: les amphétamines, l'achat d'un sosie ou bien développer le don d'ubiquité. Mmm...

- Forrest Gump dit que la vie est comme une boite de chocolat et qu'on ne sait jamais sur quel goût on va tomber. Aujourd'hui je suis tombée sur un chocolat à la merde.

- Tu ne seras plus jamais seul.

- "Être au plus proche ce n'est pas toucher: la plus grande proximité est d'assumer le lointain de l'autre. " " Les rythmes, est ce qui va nous permettre de déchiffrer la personnalité, le style de l'autre."

Jean Oury (bon ceux la existent déjà...)

- Pousser la pensée.

- Elle écoute Mika. Au premier degré. Bérénice Laporte.

- "On perd du temps au choix, on tente, on veut tout faire. N'en n'ayons qu'un, mais qu'il soit le bon." Jean de la Fontaine (celui ci aussi existe déjà)

- Don't let your past dictate you who you are, but let it be a part of who you will become.

- Life loves you.

-Quand je me dépasse et que je suis moi en mieux, moi en mieux, moi en mieux...

- "Je ne veux pas d' arguments à la Coluche, ne cherchez pas a me convaincre à tout prix, ne cherchez pas à inventer la poudre, avant Nobel il y avait la poudre, et après Nobel aussi, alors oubliez la poudre hein?" M. Chegrouche, charge de TD de macro eco à Montrouge .

- You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Steve Jobs

- Répétassent, sus-dites , outre-tombe... 

- Il vaut mieux faire envie que pitié.

- Un documentaire  sur les éboueurs

- Charlie Chaplin: "Du chaos naissent les étoiles."

- "On est pas bien la, paisibles, a la fraiche, décontractés du gland?et on bandera quand on aura envie de bander!"

- You are lovable. You are beautiful. You are a beautiful creature of the universe.

When it rains it pours

Tree of Life

A mes heures perdues, je traduis; c'est comme la cuisine, je me laisse bercer par les mots et je ne pense plus à rien. 

Ci-dessous, le monologue d'ouverture de "Tree of Life" de Terrence Malick.

D'avance, désolée pour les éventuelles maladresses...

"The nuns know there are two ways through life: the way of Nature and the way of Grace. 

And you have to choose which one you'll follow. 

Grace doesn't try to please itself, accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, accepts insults and injuries. 

Nature only wants to please itself, and others to please it too (...); to have it its own way; it finds reasons to be unhappy.  And all the world is shining around it. 

And love is smiling through all things. 

It's heard of that no one who choses the way of Grace never comes to a bad end (... )" 

"Les nonnes savent qu'il y a deux voies dans la vie: la voie de la Nature et la voie de la Grâce.

Et il te faut choisir celle que tu suivras.

La Grâce ne cherche pas à se satisfaire, accepte d'être dénigrée, oubliée, mal-aimée, accepte les insultes et les blessures.

La Nature ne veut que se satisfaire, et que les autres en fassent autant (...); n'en fait qu'à sa tête; elle trouve des raisons de ne pas être heureuse. Et le monde brille autour d'elle.

Et l'amour sourit autour de chaque chose. 

On dit que nulle personne qui choisit la voie de la Grâce ne connaît jamais une fin malheureuse (...)"

Bye bye Steve

Tout a été dit dans tous les sens, mais voici encore quelques paroles sages du phoenix le plus créatif de sa génération:

"When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Steve Jobs 

...

The difference between try and triomph is a little umf.

"The art of losing"

Beautiful beautiful poetry.

"The art of losing isn't hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent
 to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

 Lose something every day.  Accept the fluster
 of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
 The art of losing isn't hard to master.

 Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
 places, and names, and where it was you meant
 to travel.  None of these will bring disaster.

 I lost my mother's watch.  And look! my last, or
 next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
 The art of losing isn't hard to master.

 I lost two cities, lovely ones.  And, vaster,
 some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
 I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

 Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
 I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident
 the art of losing's not too hard to master
 though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster."

Elizabeth Bishop

Le capitalisme est mort, vive le capitalisme!

This is the original tombstone of Adam Smith, creator of our economical system, buried in the beautiful city of Edimburgh.

May he rest in peace. 

I wonder.

I wonder how Time Square is now, after all this time;
and I'm thinking of Chris, under the snow, is he still tryin' to avoid the flakes?
I wonder how the years went by, and I am trying to figure out,
why, you know, how we did, after all this time, to survive all that shit,
and I know, I know, you know?
I know.
I know that we gave our best, and went by, stole a lot of shit from the grocery store, and we did our best, to not damage the world around, but still we did,
and I kind of sometimes miss us,
I do not know what it is that we went through, and I cannot call any name for that, maybe,
it
is
called living.
And I also wonder what happened, and I miss us, and I know we are a
memory
already,
and I
am
letting
that go.

Mike Tyson: "Ma vie est une putain de tornade"

A waiter's tip

Every good waiter knows the difference between Scotch and Whisky, I discovered recently, and here it is.

Scotch is whiskey.

Without the "e" before the "y", it's from Scotland.

Whiskey with an "e" is traditionnaly distilled in Ireland.

Halloween is my Xmas

So this year, I was a murdered schoolgirl, after having been Amy Winehouse last year, a dead Indian previously, the hidden dead sister of the Williams sisters before that, a dead actress from the 50's before, and a series of highly interestting crazy dead people that I've now forgtten.

Don't ask me where I find the imagination to interprete all these dead people, for some reason when it comes to death, my imagination flows
My roomate was a butcher.
We went to a house-party in la Garenne Colombes, a cosy suburb 30 minutes away from Paris.
Few french celebrate Halloween, which I find kind of sad.
See, my people think dressing up is kind of ridiculous, at best childish,
I think it's bullshit, hence I dress up whenever I can.

Anyway, the hosts of this celebration did things big.

Candies and skulls and plastic rats, brooms, skeletons, fake fingers, vodka and strawberry juice...
The real shit baby,

So the party's on, and it's all fun and everything, and my schoolgirl's outfit has succes because a bunch of 22 year-old boys are hitting on me, which is always flattering.
And then I talk with this guy disguised as the Mask, and he happens to be quiet funny.
So I give him my number -which is something I never do anymore, but now I'm a bit worried that he's just ugly when I see him for real.
A similar incident happened to a friend of mine during a costume party. He was disguised as a goth and brought a sexy lady punk at his place. Turned out she was a real one, and it was no disguise. The actual tatoos of the girl got him scared -wuss!

Well I'll see. If it turns out that young man has an ACTUAL green skin, weel, at least, he's gotta have a good sense of humor, right?

Anyway, my roomate and I stayed to sleep over there -his cousin lived by the house of the party.

It's always a bit gloomy and nostalgic, kind of romantic in the real meaning of the word, a bit poetic, the day after Halloween, especially in here since we all go to the cemteries in order to give flowers to our deads. I left my friends, heading to the station, still had fake blood on my clothes, was hungovered and you took a train, listenned to Nina Simone sing her melancholy, and it was rainy so I craved fudge lollipops -somehow I associate rain and fudge lollipops.

I arrived in Saint-Lazarre, and it reminded me of that impressionist painting called "L'arrivee a Saint-Lazarre" -effective title indeed.

Passed by the Galeries Lafayette, which were closed as always on sundays,

And went back to bed all day long.

Halloween is my Xmas, it's funny and it's sad, and I like that.