Sleepy, Sloppy Saturday
Today is a textbook rainy day, meant to be spent inside, doing nothing. After some chores, I have officially decided to make a Sabbatical Saturday--a "Sabado-cal", if you will.
As raindrops fall on the window, providing the only focal point to an otherwise grey canvas outside, I lay here sipping tea and Murakami. Is there a story of his that does not end with the reader making an angry grunting noise? I looked up "Murakami" on Wikipedia. Did you know it means "Asshole"? Me neither.
Speaking of Saturday, and days in general, I decided to write down the recently learned factoid that weekdays are named after planets (props to "A Brief History of the World"). The whole thing makes sense if I think of the days in Spanish along the English counterparts--
- Monday, Lunes: "Moon" day ("Luna" in Spanish)
- Tuesday, Martes: Mars
- Wednesday, Miercoles: Mercury
- Thursday, Jueves: Jupiter
- Friday, Viernes: Venus
- Saturday, Sabado: Saturn
- Sunday, Domingo: "Sun" day (No idea behind the root in Spanish)
Did I get all those right? Now I am curious as to how the English translations came about: how did Mar(s) end up Tuesday?
***
Last night, a friend was playing some Nina Simone. I recognized the melody and the lyrics:
It took some mental wrestling to figure why I knew this, until, pow! I own a remake of this song done by Natacha Atlas:
I told my friend about this, at which point she educated me on the whereabouts of the song's origin, going way back to 1959. Jacques Brel:
Apparently, Nina and Natacha aren't the only fans. The song has been covered at least a dozen times over the years, unfortunately most recently by Celine Dijon.
On top of that, it has a bastard child named If You Go Away:
This version has also been covered dozens of times by folks like Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Julio Iglesias, and Cindy Lauper.
I think this is a very long winded way of saying: I live in a cave.
Happy Sabadocal, everyone!
As raindrops fall on the window, providing the only focal point to an otherwise grey canvas outside, I lay here sipping tea and Murakami. Is there a story of his that does not end with the reader making an angry grunting noise? I looked up "Murakami" on Wikipedia. Did you know it means "Asshole"? Me neither.
Speaking of Saturday, and days in general, I decided to write down the recently learned factoid that weekdays are named after planets (props to "A Brief History of the World"). The whole thing makes sense if I think of the days in Spanish along the English counterparts--
- Monday, Lunes: "Moon" day ("Luna" in Spanish)
- Tuesday, Martes: Mars
- Wednesday, Miercoles: Mercury
- Thursday, Jueves: Jupiter
- Friday, Viernes: Venus
- Saturday, Sabado: Saturn
- Sunday, Domingo: "Sun" day (No idea behind the root in Spanish)
Did I get all those right? Now I am curious as to how the English translations came about: how did Mar(s) end up Tuesday?
***
Last night, a friend was playing some Nina Simone. I recognized the melody and the lyrics:
Click to viewIt took some mental wrestling to figure why I knew this, until, pow! I own a remake of this song done by Natacha Atlas:
I told my friend about this, at which point she educated me on the whereabouts of the song's origin, going way back to 1959. Jacques Brel:
Apparently, Nina and Natacha aren't the only fans. The song has been covered at least a dozen times over the years, unfortunately most recently by Celine Dijon.
On top of that, it has a bastard child named If You Go Away:
This version has also been covered dozens of times by folks like Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Julio Iglesias, and Cindy Lauper.
I think this is a very long winded way of saying: I live in a cave.
Happy Sabadocal, everyone!