The man was a joy and now the joy is gone and the waiting begins. God bless you, Tony.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 11:56 PM on August 10, 2007

Disgusting. A typical ColdChef posting: total disregard, brutal insensitivity, technical ineptness and a gross lack of anything worthwhile.

I blame America. At least in Europe we know how to eat and what to eat in order to keep our bums pert and bouncy. Not too thin, mind - you want a bit of meat on the cheeks if sexual attraction is important to you.


posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 11:39 AM on August 24, 2006

Now compare saucy, confident Barcelona Guy with his dejected and bemused American counterpart, Chaps Man:



Which of the two bums is the more pinch-beckoning, tweak-inviting and ultimately beddable?

I rest my arse.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 11:40 AM on August 24, 2006

Oops. Understandably difficult to pin down, this Barcelona Guy:


posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 11:49 AM on August 24, 2006

*smiled tenderly, in his sweet European English ignorance, thinking yellow jackets were some kind of canary*

*found out that they're fuckin' WASPS!

*tried to grab madamejujujive, was slapped in the face, grabbed her other leg, took a kick to the groin but still managed to clamber aboard his annoyingly slow wasp in decent God-loving languages and was never seen again.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:39 AM on August 24, 2006

No no, it isn't! You're all wrong!

Oops, sorry about that.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:46 PM on August 3, 2006

May I offer Winston by way of consolation?
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:57 PM on August 3, 2006

Some nostalgic revolutionary words (in Portuguese) from a large-breasted, smug, seventies virago.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 2:40 PM on July 25, 2006

And yet it just about works on Camino...
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 6:35 AM on February 23, 2006

You American friends really need to watch out. When a mere Portuguese guy - who less than 30 years ago lived in Europe's longest-lasting dictatorship and looked up to the U.S. as an example of how successful untramelled expression could be - starts fearing for your freedom, you just know that you must be doing something wrong - not you, but someone in your name.

It's creepy that Europe - always more repressive and straitlaced - has become the reference for enlightened... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 1:18 PM on November 11, 2004

It seems to be both candidates did very well, drawing very high numbers of voters. In the end, like in so many democratic elections, Bush did better than Kerry by a relatively small margin. The fact that one won and the other lost shouldn't make people react as if were a massive victory. It wasn't.

In a parliamentary system, the Republicans would have a small majority and the Democrats a massive Opposition. Surely this is how they should react and get on with the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 6:41 PM on November 3, 2004

Well said, EB, every single time.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 9:44 AM on November 4, 2004

Hear, hear amberglow!

Even dark-ages, Catholic and ultra-macho Spain has now legalized gay marriage, with only a few officious peeps from the most reactionary forces.

Increasingly, it seems the U.S. - supposed to be a new country, with no baggage - is becoming backward and fanatical and ugly, like Spain during the inquisition.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:42 AM on November 4, 2004

Be that as it may, we'll never reach 500 600.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 4:06 PM on November 4, 2004

Gorgeous, intelligent, smooth, savvy - I'm in love!

Thanks dashie and everyone else who helped put it up. It already feels as it's being going for quite a while.

Congratulations to all concerned for the excellent work.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 6:35 PM on October 31, 2004

John Peel dead just doesn't make any sense.

Pop music in Britain will be demonstrably worse from now on as difficult new bands have lost their best friend and ambassador.

Deaths which make such a difference are the saddest of all. He was by far the most important presence in British popular music and I've been listening to him almost every day since 1976. I even had a pint with him once - a lovely, lovely man.

I don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 11:17 AM on October 26, 2004

Americans know Peel from the sessions. Brits know him from the radio show. There's a difference.

As others have mentioned, for generations of kids growing up in hideous towns across Britain with no music scene and daytime Smashie and Nicey, Peel offered an insight to new artists and entirely new styles of music that you'd never have discovered otherwise. African music, Jamaican dancehall, European electronica, Ivor Cutler. At the same time, he gave people a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 7:38 PM on October 28, 2004

In English, unobtrusive.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 7:46 PM on October 28, 2004

I think the Nobel Prize, when it's intelligently awarded, performs a useful function when it shames us to get round to reading interesting authors that we've *cough* always meant to explore.

I have an even more shameful confession. I adore the work of Thomas Bernhard and Peter Handke but they've both managed to put me completely off the idea of one day visiting Austria. Throw in Jelinek and they're like a massive Anti-Austrian Tourist Board.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:40 AM on October 7, 2004

*With apologies to others for going personal and off-topic*

Miguel, how can one possibly like Bernhard and Handke? I love the former, can't stand the latter. it's usually either/or with the two of them. [Matteo]

Miguel likes everybody, you know that! [languagehat]

Harrumph!

Actually - though it's true I tend to like proper human beings, I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:37 AM on October 7, 2004

No conversations, unfortunately, but a big bunch of letters and plain postcards. They're mostly about the translations (and productions) - my method was to list all possible versions and wait for Beckett to choose the less clumsy. He often made surprising choices though.

Two examples:

1) In "Footfalls"/"Pas", the two characters are "Mother" and "May". It so happens that the word for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 4:41 PM on October 7, 2004

Many thanks, realityblurred - I always like reading his reviews and it's great to have all of them at hand.

I was a film critic for a few years and Ebert reminds me of a colleague (who became a good friend) who had the same enthusiasm but also the same bane: he was far too easy to please. And why? Because, like Ebert (I suspect - I've never met him) he just loves movies - the dark hall, the image, the actors, the experience - to the point where almost anything... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:56 PM on September 16, 2004

Funny you should ask, seanyboy: here's a real Fado thread I prepared earlier. ;)
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 12:31 AM on September 14, 2004

Wow, Wulgar! - great post! Double exclamation marks are in order. Montana is such a dream.

I think one of the great problems with us Europeans is that we don't realize how big and varied a country the U.S. is. A second, related problem is that we only know the distinctive characteristics of, at most, 3 or 4 states. This is a great help.

We're on the same ticket, buddy! :)
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 11:48 PM on August 25, 2004

The one foremost MeFi secret is how much we love each other and can't live - in the screaming Harry Nilsson or U2 versions - without each other.

On a much, much lower tone:

"Love is in the air..."


*Embraces the Sarge*
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 6:41 PM on July 15, 2004

Six citizens of Poland, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden plumped for Manchester

And one of them woz me! Finally, all these years of listening to Joy Division have taken their toll.

No, but it's quite true that Italy is by far the best country in everything that really matters. Britain is a great country but best received by post. Take away the books newspapers, journals and magazines; the hampers from Fortnum and Mason's; DVDs -... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 6:26 PM on July 10, 2004

How very weird, Stav! I've been at least a dozen times, North and South, West and East and I have not one single complaint. On the contrary, people were always very friendly, talkative and generous - never smarmy or on automatic-pilot. They also put up with my highly questionable Italian and understood every garbled sentence immediately. Also, coming from a melancholy country like Portugal, everyone seemed so high-spirited, even happy.

My second wife was Italian,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 7:53 PM on July 10, 2004

"We have a small window of opportunity. If there are enough blogs on the Internet, the ties between the survivors can be found"

Wow! This is amazing - and, when you come down to it, so simple. Thanks for this post, arco!
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 3:49 PM on July 8, 2004

But lupus, survivors - even Jewish survivors - are also alive. Granted, it would have been a lot easier if they'd all been killed but, hey, even Hitler wasn't perfect.

Seriously, don't you understand all these genocides are connected and that awareness of one leads to awareness of others? How can you think it's an either/or situation? Do you honestly think Holocaust survivors and their families are less sensitive to other acts of genocide?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:33 PM on July 8, 2004

Fair enough, lupus. I definitely see what you mean. I'd argue, however, that we need to divert a scant 1% attention from the 99,9% of pap and drivel that occupy our daily lives to focus on all the genocidal drives and urges. And not only genocidal - on all the murderous crimes committed everywhere.

I don't think that genocides "compete" with each other for attention - all outrages compete with the drivel and the pap.

If only people... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 7:03 PM on July 8, 2004

Cheers, lupus - I'm proud to be a brother to you.

But, if I could advance your (our) cause just a second, the way I see it is that, in the year 2004, we're still way beyond even an approximation of humanity.

We're still arguing against genocide! Genocides still occur (I was very involved in the East Timor struggle, btw, and it was a great triumph for the Timorese, Bill Clinton and the much-maligned UN) and we do well do oppose them. But, dammit,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:09 PM on July 8, 2004

Matteo - no shit, no exaggeration, this posting spurt of yours started out superb but still manages to get better and better. If I were a publisher, I'd be on to you like a hawk - imagine a series of 100-150 page monographs on the themes you've chosen. Or special editions of a literary magazine.

Congratulations and thanks!
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 3:53 PM on July 8, 2004

Apart from that, who do you think is going to win (I bet you guessed I was leading up to this!)?

In one of today's British newspapers alone, The Observer, apart from the two linked articles, there are no less than six more articles on the subject of the Euro 2004 Final: one by Paul Wilson on the match itself; another comparing the Portugal coach, Luis Felipe Scolari, to the England coach Sven- Goran Eriksson; Tom Humphries on the "New... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 7:09 PM on July 3, 2004

what Miguel left out of the FPP is that, for Greece, this has been truly a Cinderella story

Costas, you're quite right. But I did post a comment the day before yesterday, in another thread, in response to a comment by sgt serenity, which I think translates the mood here in Portugal:

Sarge - I am raging through the streets, as you may well imagine.

But, you being a Scot, will appreciate... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:38 AM on July 4, 2004

Congratulations to the brave Greeks. They were the better team and fully deserved to win. They played consistently throughout the whole tournament and showed the rest of us what real teamwork means.

It was an honour to lose (twice, even!) to such a team. They were the underdogs, the team all the big players joked about and their achievement is truly awesome.

We did our best - so no excuses.

*quietly takes the 50... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 1:46 PM on July 4, 2004

Btw, I think another lesson from this Euro 2004, considering the improvements in the English, Portuguese and Greek sides is that it does pay to have a foreign manager, just as foreign players greatly enhanced club football. They were, as far as I know, the only national teams that did - despite all the usual xenophobic criticism.

Scolari is staying in Portugal and Erikkson in England for the 2006 World Cup - let's hope the great Otto won't be lured away from Greece by... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 3:37 PM on July 4, 2004

Sarge - I am raging through the streets, as you may well imagine.

But, you being a Scot, will appreciate that already the Greeks have won. They'd never won a game in the European championship - and they're through to the final, after having beaten the hosts, fair and square. That's about seven notches up.

Portugal, on the other hand, are only one notch up: they've often reached the semi-finals. It's the first time we've got to the final - but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:47 AM on July 2, 2004

When I was 14, I was so thrilled I was the only person I knew who had Nick Drake's first album and repeatedly played it on my half-hour student radio show.

Truth is, though, that in 1969-1970 there already was Dylan, Buckley and Cohen. And Drake, with his cosy, middle-class melancholy Englishness soon sounded like a slightly more candid Donovan or, to be crueller, in the same position regarding Tim Buckley as Cliff Richard was to Elvis.

This was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:48 PM on May 24, 2004

I'm ashamed to say I can't remember, bitpart. Sorry about that...
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:16 PM on May 26, 2004

Can the guy just post the woman's photographs, name and personal details on the Web and accuse her of hitting his truck? Just like that? What if the one eye witness (assuming there was one) made a mistake? Couldn't the woman sue for defamation and/or invasion of privacy? How can it be OK to call someone publicly a "bitch"? In Portugal at least it's considered a crime of agression to seriously insult someone ( even privately, although publicly is much worse) - as my long rap sheet... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:17 PM on May 19, 2004

Hee hee, Commish!

But I'll give you an example: he says that, since the alleged incident on April 25, she's been "fired" from Bahama Breeze. But Bahama Breeze seems to have very recently closed for good, as the parent company's restaurant locator apparently confirms.

Isn't it more likely that, since they closed their doors, they didn't so much fire their employees as make them redundant?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:44 PM on May 19, 2004

Many thanks for that information and explanation, supershauna. More power to you for posting to a thread after it had run its course as when it's archived it will now have a satisfactory conclusion - a rare thing indeed!
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:15 PM on May 26, 2004

In Havana, Cuba, ballpoint pens are also direly needed and requested - at least from foreign tourists. Cuban kids and the population in general are highly literate - almost on a par with the world-beating Irish, I'd say - and it's simultaneously heart-breaking and an example to all that things to write with are sought after with such determination.

It's also a comment on the paradoxical nature of the Castro regime.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:47 PM on May 12, 2004

Thanks, prolific and gyan. I'm glad it's been posted before - sorry I didn't search properly! Mea culpa and dammit and all that... :)

*repeats to himself: "Must. Read. MetaFilter. More!"
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:33 AM on May 7, 2004

Oops, that'll teach me not to blow my own trumpet: here's the corrected link for the Levine post, which has, btw, very good in-thread links to other caricaturists.
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 5:43 PM on May 5, 2004

Hey, thanks TimTypeZed! I'd seen his work often but, as so often (depressingly; unfairly; stupidly) happens I'd never bothered to remember C F Payne's name. In the Levine thread you also commented in, Matteo reminded us of the terrific talents of Tullio Pericoli.

I really like the work of Nick Garland. There's a good database of other (older) British cartoonists here. There's also this astonishing guy who does covers for The Spectator and caricatures for the TLS,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:09 PM on May 5, 2004

Er, make that [Via Arts & Letters Daily.]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 10:54 PM on May 3, 2004

Is that really all there is to the EU?

Nah, dear hama7 - I was just joshing. The EU is actually very interesting and exciting as member countries are so different from each other yet love the differences. It seems only yesterday we were all at each other's throats so it's nice that we can compete according to commonly agreed rules.

Of course, Southern countries tend to stick together (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece) as they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:12 PM on April 30, 2004

Miguel - how is the weather in Portugal at this time of the year?

Wonderful, dear co-citizen romanb! And a bottle of Wyborowa is still only 7 euros, a lot cheaper than that non-EU rubbish. :)
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:34 PM on May 1, 2004

I did wunther whether you were gunther post this, sarge! :)
posted to MetaFilter by MiguelCardoso at 8:28 PM on May 1, 2004