Arnaud

I'm feeling down, depressed. I can't find any music which makes me feel better and I don't want to speak with friends neither. What is the ultimate solution ?

Ordering on amazon !

I've just ordered these three items:

Francis Pisani and Dominique Piotet: Comment le web change le monde : L'alchimie des multitudes (ISBN-13: 978-2744062612)

Anne Truitt Zelenka and Judi Sohn: Connect!: A Guide to a New Way of Working from GigaOM's Web Worker Daily (ISBN-13: 978-0470223987)

G. W. S. Friedrichsen and Robert W. Burchfield: Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (ISBN-13: 978-0198611127)

Mmmmmmm, I feel gooood, now

:-)

I have just finished "Boroña" written by Leopoldo García-Alas Ureña₁ as known as "Clarín", a Spanish realist novelist. It seems to me there are some biographical elements in it.
If you haven't read it yet, I must warn you that I will tell the whole story including the end. If you plan to read it, stopping reading that blog entry after the first paragraph below may be a good idea..

The protagonists are:

- Pepe Francisquín
- Pepa Francisca, the defunct mother
- Rita, the sister
- Ramón Liantero, the stepfather
- the five nieces and nephews

When he was a young boy, Pepe left home for working hard and earning much money. The story takes place when he's back from Mexico after 30 years. During that long period, he has never stopped feeling nostalgia of his childhood, especially every nice moment he has shared with his mother. Now, he is very rich but realizes that it doesn't meet what his expectancies were: he was still ill and her mother wasn't back to life.

Rita's personality has changed much since he saw her the last time. Since she married Ramón, she has become greedy like him.
By the way, she was telling her brother not to come back till he had earnt as much money as he could.
Now that Pepe is back, her husband and she only think about looking what his bags contain instead of his bad health.

Then, a lot of memories come to Pepe's mind while he is smelling the walls and the corners of the different rooms. He thinks only one thing can cure him, only one thing can make him as strong as he was 30 years ago, only one thing can make him happy. What is it ? A piece of bread made with maize ("borona" is the Spanish word) her mother was used to incorporate into the milk for him.

At the very end, Pepe passes away and all his family is very joyful for the inheritance.

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1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopoldo_Alas_y_Ure%C3%B1a

Some months ago, I finished reading "Les mauvaises nouvelles" written by Nicola Sirkis who is the lead singer of Indochine₁, a French rock band.
It's a set of 13 novellas drawing inspiration from various topics and celebrities that (may) have already influenced their music.

Amongst those, we can mention:

- Egon Schiele₂: Austrian expressionist painter, also known as "The pornographer of Vienna". "La chambre N°9" seems to be an hommage to him but I need some confirmation. I only can say it depicts how the main characters, Julien (11) and Alice (14) live their incestuous love. Egon and Gertrude, one of his sisters, had a similar relation, analogous facts included.
- Marguerite Duras₃: French woman writer born in Hanoï ( formerly Saigon ), the capital of French Indochina₄.
- Pierre Loti₅
- J-D Salinger₆
- Chet Baker₇

They are so strange .... Still thinking of "Peep Show" ( Olivia, Pierre, Chloé, Fabrice, Juliette, Martin, Rebecca, Alain, Justine and Julia are the protagonists, huhu ), "Le train", and of others ...

I remember I was sorry not to know Indochine lyrics better as sometimes I was thinking of an already listened song but was not able to say which. ( I understand myself *g* )

I want to read it again as soon as I know these references better.

---
1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indochine_(band)
2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Schiele
3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Duras
4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Indochina
5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Loti
6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger
7: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chet_Baker