Meme swunked from hemoinejean7
◘ If you've been tagged, you should write your answers in your own LJ and replace any questions that you dislike with a new question.
◘ Tag nine people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I tag: inverarity, linnapaw, haikujaguar stigandnasty919, shezan, elise_the_great, cjmr, pandoraculpa, eliskimo.
What song are you currently addicted to?
Oh, lots. One I've just listened to a few times is I've been everywhere by Johnny Cash, and then there is a great Roman-dialect song sung by Alberto Sordi, Te ci hanno mai mannato a quer paese? ("Did anyone ever tell you to get lost?")
What books are you currently reading?
Lots
Leopold Schwarzschild: The Red Prussian - the best and most devastating life of Karl Marx ever written.
Alf Hiltebeitel: The Ritual of Battle
Georges Dumezil: Mythe et Epopee and Archaic Roman Religion
Aurel Kolnai: The War against the West
De Marco and Wiker: Architects of the culture of death (bit of a disappointment, this one, and I'm thinking I could probably do it better myself).
John Dickie: Cosa Nostra - a history of the Sicilian Mafia (so far, it seems excellent)
TBL Webster: From Mycenae to Homer (alas, stinky with the years of tobacco from some previous owner)
Lucio Colletti: Karl Marx, early writings
FJ Byrne: Irish Kings and High Kings
Roberto Calasso: Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia ("The Wedding of Kadmos and Harmonia")
Augusto Ancillotti: Elogio del Variabile ("In praise of Mutability"), a study of Indo-European linguistics
Giovanni Colasanti: Fregellae
Mort Walker: Beetle Bailey, the first two years
NOTE: some of these are books I already read and that I need to go over for research.
What is the one skill you wish you had?
To be able not to be hated by women. I've said this before.
If you had the chance to go back in time for 24 hours, where and when would you go?
Somewhere where I could get Debbie to forgive the things I'd said. Or a place in Chicago where a friend jumped out of a building. The trouble is that I am not sure of the exact time and place for either. But those are the two things I desperately wish to undo in my life.
What is your favourite quote?
One: Take what you want and pay for it, says God. Two: never let a good or kind gesture go unrecognized.
What was your favourite TV show as a kid?
Wow, that was a long time ago. And they were Italian programs. I know that I used to love Born Free, and a show of animated comic strips called Gulp!, and of course that great and wholly unexplainable thing that was Carosello - sorry, but that is strictly for Italians of my age.
What websites do you always visit when you go online?
News-related ones.
What was the last thing you bought?
Important: my copy of Aurel Kolnai's book (see list above). Unimportant: several bottles of fizzy drinking water. (The tap water around here would be OK if you could squeeze a little from all the calcium. Hard? You could carve it with a chisel!)
Coke or Pepsi?
Coke Zero.
Do you get cravings? If so, what do you crave?
Yes. Ice cream.
What do you do to change your mood?
Sing. (Unfortunately, today is a bad-voice day. Even in church, I had to stop trying, because I croaked.)
What was the last meal you ate?
Rice with tuna and odd bits - leftovers, really.
Five things you can't live without.
Music, my computer, books, a little sunshine (this winter really made me appreciate it) and comics.
What is the closest purple thing near you?
I'm thinking of my parish priest's Lenten vestments. But I am sure I have plenty of books with purple covers and spines. In fact, I can see a few.
What's something that never fails to make you smile?
Italian folk music of the happy kind - dances, humour songs, insulting and dirty songs, etc.
What are you not looking forward to?
Fiorcing myself to finish various pieces of writing.
If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
How to choose... Probably something that reminded me of home. So, pasta with ham, cream and peas; brasato al barolo; a good Italian mixed salad; real fresh fruit (something the English have no idea of); and coffee.
The world is going to finish in one hour. How are you going to spend that hour?
Two things would be to sing or to pray. So I would probably sing some of the great old hymns - one thing that the English were as good as as they were bad with food - with an intention for the souls of all the people I have loved.
◘ Tag nine people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I tag: inverarity, linnapaw, haikujaguar stigandnasty919, shezan, elise_the_great, cjmr, pandoraculpa, eliskimo.
What song are you currently addicted to?
Oh, lots. One I've just listened to a few times is I've been everywhere by Johnny Cash, and then there is a great Roman-dialect song sung by Alberto Sordi, Te ci hanno mai mannato a quer paese? ("Did anyone ever tell you to get lost?")
What books are you currently reading?
Lots
Leopold Schwarzschild: The Red Prussian - the best and most devastating life of Karl Marx ever written.
Alf Hiltebeitel: The Ritual of Battle
Georges Dumezil: Mythe et Epopee and Archaic Roman Religion
Aurel Kolnai: The War against the West
De Marco and Wiker: Architects of the culture of death (bit of a disappointment, this one, and I'm thinking I could probably do it better myself).
John Dickie: Cosa Nostra - a history of the Sicilian Mafia (so far, it seems excellent)
TBL Webster: From Mycenae to Homer (alas, stinky with the years of tobacco from some previous owner)
Lucio Colletti: Karl Marx, early writings
FJ Byrne: Irish Kings and High Kings
Roberto Calasso: Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia ("The Wedding of Kadmos and Harmonia")
Augusto Ancillotti: Elogio del Variabile ("In praise of Mutability"), a study of Indo-European linguistics
Giovanni Colasanti: Fregellae
Mort Walker: Beetle Bailey, the first two years
NOTE: some of these are books I already read and that I need to go over for research.
What is the one skill you wish you had?
To be able not to be hated by women. I've said this before.
If you had the chance to go back in time for 24 hours, where and when would you go?
Somewhere where I could get Debbie to forgive the things I'd said. Or a place in Chicago where a friend jumped out of a building. The trouble is that I am not sure of the exact time and place for either. But those are the two things I desperately wish to undo in my life.
What is your favourite quote?
One: Take what you want and pay for it, says God. Two: never let a good or kind gesture go unrecognized.
What was your favourite TV show as a kid?
Wow, that was a long time ago. And they were Italian programs. I know that I used to love Born Free, and a show of animated comic strips called Gulp!, and of course that great and wholly unexplainable thing that was Carosello - sorry, but that is strictly for Italians of my age.
What websites do you always visit when you go online?
News-related ones.
What was the last thing you bought?
Important: my copy of Aurel Kolnai's book (see list above). Unimportant: several bottles of fizzy drinking water. (The tap water around here would be OK if you could squeeze a little from all the calcium. Hard? You could carve it with a chisel!)
Coke or Pepsi?
Coke Zero.
Do you get cravings? If so, what do you crave?
Yes. Ice cream.
What do you do to change your mood?
Sing. (Unfortunately, today is a bad-voice day. Even in church, I had to stop trying, because I croaked.)
What was the last meal you ate?
Rice with tuna and odd bits - leftovers, really.
Five things you can't live without.
Music, my computer, books, a little sunshine (this winter really made me appreciate it) and comics.
What is the closest purple thing near you?
I'm thinking of my parish priest's Lenten vestments. But I am sure I have plenty of books with purple covers and spines. In fact, I can see a few.
What's something that never fails to make you smile?
Italian folk music of the happy kind - dances, humour songs, insulting and dirty songs, etc.
What are you not looking forward to?
Fiorcing myself to finish various pieces of writing.
If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?
How to choose... Probably something that reminded me of home. So, pasta with ham, cream and peas; brasato al barolo; a good Italian mixed salad; real fresh fruit (something the English have no idea of); and coffee.
The world is going to finish in one hour. How are you going to spend that hour?
Two things would be to sing or to pray. So I would probably sing some of the great old hymns - one thing that the English were as good as as they were bad with food - with an intention for the souls of all the people I have loved.