My grandmother's attic

My grandmother's attic is very creepy and dusty. To get to it, you must climb a skinny metal ladder from the kitchen, open a wooden trap door and make your way up. No one ever goes there, so no one really knows what is up there. Of course, attics attract me.

I have always known that up there are four old trunks, two of which contain bed spreads that my grandma wanted to hang in the sunlight. What I didn't know was that under those bed spreads were the family's heir loom: dozens of hand spun, hand woven and embroidered linen cloths! Same of which belonged to my great grandmother. In fact, my grandmother had forgotten it was up there. It is amazing how old wooden trunks preserve cloth so well, everything was still in great condition, just a bit of an old moldy smell. 

I'm back!!

130 pages later and I finished my master's thesis. Museums will never be the same again!
Now I can finally treat myself to a single reese peanut butter cup that has been waiting patiently for me in the fridge for this moment. The strange thing is is, having been in total reclusion, it feels weird to get up in the morning and not have a 5 page deadline in front of the computer.
So to start off right I made myself another list: a short term list of things that will bring me immediate pleasure, like calling friends, watching dumb TV shows, restarting embroidery and going the the photo lab (I have a year full of film to develop!).
It feels amazing to be back!

Museo Cartaceo de Cassiano dal Pozzo

In museum history there is one period that fascinates me: Cabinets of Curiosity.

The starting point of most European museums were these private collections of rich and scholarly intellectuals from the 16th and 17th century that collected curious and marvelous naturalia and artificialia.

In fact, collecting is in the human nature and most of us, in one point in our lives, keep a small cabinet of curiosities: a drawer filled with strange stuff; a shell collection; a wall covered with photos, cards and posters.

As I was writing a chapter about this period for my thesis, I came across and amazing cabinet originally belonging to the roman collector Cassiano dal Pozzo that bought and commissioned 7 000 watercolors, prints and drawings creating his «Paper Museum» documenting ancient art and architecture, botany, geology, ornithology and zoology. Aside from textiles, paper collections are second on my list, specially the meticulous drawings of fruits and vegetables.
Cassiano personally noted and cataloged the entire collection with methods similar to current museum practices. The collection was dispersed and sold after his death and now is part of various museums and private collections. However there is a work in progress to study the Paper Museum in a massive 36 volume catalouge raisonné which will reunite the collection for the first time since the 17th century.

1 potato, 2 potatoes, 3 potatoes

A bit away from my broken computer to help out harvesting potatoes. Tradition states that for the youngest members of the family is reserved the task of packaging potatoes. Picking them up and bagging them while the wise elders hunt for potatoes by nobly handling their sharpened hoes. The scary thing is that I'm the youngest!?

Last year I saw "Les glaneurs et la glaneuse" by the beautiful Agnès Varda, a movie about the centuries old practice of gleaning: picking up the castoffs of others. There was a scene in the movie about gleaning potatoes in massive farms and the enormous quantities of potatoes that are left in the dirt to rot. Of course in my parent's farm I'm a thorough gleaner! The same year Agnès made the movie, she used the strange shaped potatoes she had gleaned and exhibited them in an art show while she, herself, paraded around in a potato costume. Amazing.

on holidays

A trip up north for «working on thesis» holidays away from the city. Ah... the fresh country air and windy beaches! With visits to friends, family and fiestas; a bit of farming and stops at the beach for cold swims in the ocean. 

Have a great summer break!

# 28 sleep under the stars

After a long bike ride through the city, tracking the same route as tram 28, we ended up dancing to traditional European music performed by these guys at Miradouro da Graça. Pretty amazing set: live music, people dancing and an amazing view of the city. Pity we both have two left feet and were dancing in runners!

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on a bike

Yesterday I went for a bike ride. Yes... in Lisbon! The city is actually very bicycle friendly once you've learned how to go around the hills. I stopped at this beautiful shop to buy yarn and the first thing the person behind the counter says to me is "you came by bike?!". I thought that was nice since he really looked surprised. 

Outliers

Meet Malcolm.

I've been listening these last few days to an ebook. I must confess that this new way of "reading" has converted me specially when the voice through the wiring is Malcolm Gladwell's. The book is Outliers: the story of success. I first was acquainted with Malcolm through Ted on his talk about spaghetti sauce. Yon can ask yourself, how can anyone take 17 minutes of their time and listen to someone lecturing on the amazing world of spaghetti sauce! But it was so captivating that, Pete bought his book Blink and we both started reading it. Blink is about how snap judgments and first impressions really matter. He writes like he speaks: in a clear, explanatory and storytelling way that anyone wants to listen to him speak…even about spaghetti sauce!

The Outliers, is about how behind every success story there is a pattern. That people who get to the top,  don't get there by sheer genius, but due to very hard work (his 10 000 hour theory), to our cultural and geographical backgrounds and to the opportunities we are able to embrace. 

Very inspirational specially at this particular time. I really feel I am not putting in the "10 000 hours" of hard work, mainly due to the lack of motivation (which by the way is always a characteristic of those who get to the top!).  I need to find my way.

# 67 buy a Dr. Seuss book

A quick stop at my favourite shop site in Lisbon and found a Dr. Seuss book "Fox in Socks"  (1965) amongst hundreds of uninteresting books. It cost me 0.75€! Amazing! I tried finding Dr. Seuss books in Lisbon's book stores and book fairs, but no one has ever heard of it over here, which I find a bit odd because they are a classical children's book. They're great to teach english in a fun and simple way.  

This one is about Mr. Fox playing tongue twister games with Mr. Knox who is unable to do so: 

«I can't blab

such blibber blubber!

My tongue isn't 

made of rubber.

Mr. Knox. Now

come now. Come now.

You don't have to

be so dumb now...

Try to say this, 

Mr. Knox, please...

Through three cheese trees

three free fleas flew.

While these fleas flew, 

freezy breeze blew.

Freezy breeze made

these three trees freeze.

Freezy trees made

these trees' cheese freeze.

That's what made these

three free fleas sneeze.»

PS: do you remember a Christmas movie awhile back called How the Grinch stole Christmas? Well, the Grinch is a character created by Dr. Seuss in 1957.

obrigada Valongo