Airea, once.

www.aireadee.com Author of simulacra

[lisamarie-vee]

[taxi-davis]

Detroit Zoo Ad from the 80s

[sciatu]

GLI ASSEDI DI TROINA

Il primo assedio fu verso il 1063. Il Gran Conte Ruggero I proveniente da Rometta e sulla via dei monti che collegava Messina a Palermo, aveva liberato facilmente Troina dagli arabi ed era stato accolto dalla locale popolazione bizantina con grande onore.  Ruggero era da poco sposato e quindi lasciò la sua prima moglie a Troina con una dozzina di cavalieri e si diresse verso Nicosia per assediarla e depredare i dintorni. I bizantini fecero due conti. Per prima cosa gli arabi avevano riconosciuto loro ampia indipendenza cosa che Ruggero forse non avrebbe fatto. Secondariamente i Normanni erano a favore del papa di Roma mentre loro erano di religione ortodossa, quindi i liberatori erano al pari degli arabi: miscredenti. La moglie di Ruggero con pochi cavaliere pareva essere una facile preda e con poca fatica potevano avere un grande risultato. Assalirono quindi il castello dove i Normanni risiedevano con l’obbiettivo di catturare facilmente Giuditta D’Evreux, sposa di Ruggero. Fecero male i conti. I normanni erano pochi ma erano macchine da guerra. L’assalto al castello finì in una stage di paesani con i dodici cavalieri normanni barricati nel castello a difendere strenuamente la loro signora. Venuta la notte i paesani si rifugiarono nella parte alta del paese sicuri della vendetta di Ruggero. Quest’ultimo arrivo con i suoi uomini e diede l’assalto alle posizioni bizantine. Nel frattempo però erano arrivati  cinquemila arabi a dare manforte ai bizantini. Ruggero dovette a sua volta ritirarsi nel castello per difendersi dagli arabi e dai paesani. Fu un momento tragico per i normanni chiusi nel paese dove non potevano usare la cavalleria che era la loro arma più importante. Ruggero però aveva affrontato momenti peggiori, quindi attese l’alba ed attaccò risolutamente il campo arabo riportando una grande vittoria. Amari, grande storico siciliano ( e forse non molto imparziale) sottolineò che gli arabi, per combattere il freddo avevano abusato di vino e quindi non erano nelle condizioni migliori per difendersi. Fatto stà che sconfitti gli arabi, Ruggero si rivolse contro i bizantini passandone a fil di spada la maggior parte. Questo episodio fu molto importante per Ruggero che non era solo un soldato preparato e coraggioso, ma aveva anche quella che un giornalista di oggi chiamerebbe “una visione politica”: capì che conquistare la Sicilia voleva dire dover comandare due popoli che non avrebbero esitato a combatterlo. Per questo motivo incominciò a favorire l’arrivo non solo di nobili normanni e inglesi, ma anche di contadini dal nord europa. Questo fenomeno di ripopolamento con un popolo fedele raggiunse l’apice  una volta sposata Adelaisa del Vasto signora del Monferrato che fu seguita da una grande schiera di sudditi lombardi, piemontesi e provenzali che andarono ad occupare città chiave come Sperlinga, Piazza Armerina e Sanfratello, diventando il nucleo Gallico della cultura siciliana.

Il secondo assedio avvenne durante la seconda guerra mondiale. I tedeschi e gli italiani si erano fortificati a Troina in un prologo di quello che poi sarebbe stata la battaglia di Montecassino. Un  fotografo, un giovane Robert Capa,  seguiva tra le file americane, il loro avanzare nella conquista delle case di Troina. Gli alleati, vista la difficoltà a conquistare il borgo, decidono quindi di fare quello che avrebbero fatto a Montecassino ed incominciano a bombardare dalla terra e dal cielo il piccolo paese. Fu una strage di donne, bambini, vecchi e soldati. Robert Capa fotografò l’orrore dell’assedio e la distruzione che la guerra portò. Una sua fotografia diventa un famosa come quella del miliziano spagnolo ucciso durante il suo reportage della guerra di Spagna. E’ la foto di un soldato americano che ascolta un vecchio siciliano senza scarpe, che con il suo bastone gli indica una direzione lontana.

Ora Troina è uno dei borghi più belli d’Italia. Finite sono le lotte ed i morti sui monti Nebrodi dove i boschi e la quiete sono ormai dominati dalla lontana e imponente, unica signora della Sicilia: l’Etna

The first siege was around 1063. The Grand Conte Ruggero I coming from Rometta and on the way in the mountains that connected Messina to Palermo, had easily freed Troina from the Arabs and had been welcomed by the local Byzantine population. Ruggero was recently married and therefore left his first wife in Troina with a dozen knights and went to Nicosia to besiege the town and plunder the surroundings. The Byzantines thinked about the situation. First, the Arabs had recognized them a broad independence, and Ruggero perhaps would not have done. Secondly the Normans were in favor of the pope of Rome while they were for the Orthodox religion, therefore the liberators were on a par with the Arabs: unbelievers. Ruggero’s wife with a few knights seemed to be an easy prey and with little effort they could have a great result. They then attacked the castle where the Normans resided with the aim of easily capturing Giuditta D’Evreux, the bride of Roger. The made a big mistacke. The Normans were few but they were war machines. The assault on the castle ended in a stage of villagers with the twelve Norman knights barricaded in the castle to strenuously defend their lady. When the night came, the villagers took refuge in the upper part of the town, sure of Roger’s revenge. The latter arrived with his men and stormed the Byzantine positions. In the meantime, however, five thousand Arabs had come to support the Byzantines. Roger in turn had to retire to the castle to defend himself from the Arabs and the villagers. It was a tragic moment for the Normans closed in the country where they could not use cavalry which was their most important weapon. Ruggero, however, had faced worse moments, so he waited for the dawn and resolutely attacked the Arab camp reporting a great victory. Mr. Amari, a great Sicilian historian (and perhaps not very impartial) stressed that the Arabs, to fight the cold, had abused wine and therefore were not in the best conditions to defend themselves. As soon as the Arabs were defeated, Roger turned against the Byzantines, passing most of them by the sword. This episode was very important for Ruggero who was not only a prepared and courageous soldier, but he also had what a journalist today would call “a political vision”: he understood that conquering Sicily meant having to command two peoples who would not hesitate to fight him . For this reason he began to favor the arrival not only of Norman and English nobles, but also of peasants from northern Europe. This phenomenon of repopulation with a faithful people reached its peak once Adelaisa del Vasto was married with Ruggero and she was followed by a large group of Lombard, Piedmontese and Provencal people who went to occupy key cities such as Sperlinga, Piazza Armerina and Sanfratello, becoming the Gallic nucleus of Sicilian culture.

The second siege occurred during the Second World War. The Germans and Italians had fortified themselves in Troina in a prologue of what would later be the battle of Montecassino. A photographer, a young Robert Capa, followed their progress in the conquest of the houses of Troina in the American ranks. The allies, given the difficulty in conquering the village, therefore decided to do what they would have done in Montecassino and began to bomb the small town from the earth and the sky. It was a massacre of women, children, old people and soldiers. Robert Capa photographed the horror of the siege and the destruction that the war brought. One of his photographs becomes as famous as that of the Spanish militiaman killed during the Capa’s report of the Spanish war. It is a photo of an American soldier who listens to an old Sicilian without shoes, who with his cane indicates a distant direction.

Now Troina is one of the most beautiful villages in Italy. The struggles and deaths on the Nebrodi mountains are over where the woods and the quiet are now dominated by the distant and imposing, only lady of Sicily: Etna

[arinzeture]

By Nichii Nahama

‘Soooo you mean to tell me that someone down your ancestry line survived being chained to other human bodies for several months in the bottom of a disease-infested ship during the Middle Passage, lost their language, customs and traditions, picked up the English language as best they could while working free of charge from sun up to sun down as they watched babies sold from out of their arms and women raped by ruthless slave owners.

Took names with no last names, no birth certificates, no heritage of any kind, braved the Underground Railroad, survived the Civil War to enter into sharecropping... Learned to read and write out of sheer will and determination, faced the burning crosses of the KKK, everted their eyes at the black bodies swinging from ropes hung on trees...

Fought in World Wars as soldiers only to return to America as boys, marched in Birmingham, hosed in Selma, jailed in Wilmington, assassinated in Memphis, segregated in the South, ghettoed in the North, ignored in history books, stereotyped in Hollywood...

and in spite of it all, someone in your family line endured every era to make sure you would get here, but you receive one rejection, face one obstacle, lose one friend, get overlooked, and you want to quit?

How dare you entertain the very thought of quitting. People, you will never know survived from generation to generation so you could succeed. Don’t you dare let them down!

It is NOT in our DNA to quit!’

[mylanguagesblogger]

https://www.facebook.com/stevethevagabond/photos/a.777473768978581/5894685693924004/

[lalinguaitaliana]

Io imparo la lingua italiana e oggi la numeri ordinali...💪🏽

[italiabenetti-allyoucanitaly]

📽MOVIEITALY🎞Learn italian with movies - LA GIARA 😂

MOVIEITALYLearn italian with movies - LA GIARA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzsAW-aAOsgLearn italian with movies - Imparare l'italiano guardando video e film, oggi lo facciamo con la versione televisiva di un famoso racconto di Luigi Pirandello “La Giara”, nel film del 1954 “Questa è la vita”.Se vuoi guardare l'intero film “Questa è la vita” lo puoi trovare sulla piattaforma MOVIEITALY della Minerva Pictures: https://www.movieitalyplus.com/Movieitaly è la prima piattaforma di streaming on demand che intende veicolare la lingua e la cultura italiana nel mondo attraverso i film italiani.Questa lezione si compone di tre parti:1) L'audio con la storia originale.2)La video lezione con i sottotitoli e la spiegazione delle parole difficili.3)La lezione PDF con i testi (l'intera novella e la trascrizione dei sottotitoli), le spiegazioni e il lavoro su brano e video.Ascolta la storia originale nel nostro podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/…/la-giara-luigi-pirandello…La lezione completa in formato PDF è scaricabile gratuitamente dai nostri Patreon a partire dal livello Cappuccino al seguente link: https://www.patreon.com/AllyoucanItalyGRAZIE A MOVIEITALY per averci dato il permesso di usare il materiale video.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

A List of "Beautiful" Words related to Summer

to include in your next poem/story

Aestival - of or relating to the summer

Arboreal - of, relating to, or resembling a tree

Calefaction - the state of being warmed

Canicular - of or relating to the dog days (i.e., the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere; a period of stagnation or inactivity)

Chanterelle - a fragrant edible mushroom (Cantharellus cibarius) usually having a yellow to orange color

Convivial - relating to, occupied with, or fond of feasting, drinking, and good company

Crepuscular - of, relating to, or resembling twilight; dim

Devilry - playful, reckless behavior that is not intended to cause serious harm; mischief

Forenoon - the early part of the day ending with noon; morning

Igneous - of, relating to, or resembling fire; fiery

Noctilucent - visible or glowing at night; bioluminescent

Ocherous - of the hue of impure iron ore with an earthy usually red or yellow pigment

Pergola - arbor, trellis; a structure usually consisting of parallel colonnades supporting an open roof of girders and cross rafters

Redolence - an often pungent or agreeable odor

Respite - an interval of rest or relief

Salubrious - favorable to or promoting health or well-being

Solstice - the time of the sun's passing a solstice which occurs about June 21 to begin summer in the northern hemisphere and about December 21 to begin winter in the northern hemisphere

Souse - to make drunk

Vespertine - active, flowering, or flourishing in the evening

Viridescent - slightly green; greenish

If any of these words make it into your poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

Word List: Spring More: Word Lists

[themadscene]

Means a lot to have Martha Serpas, my first poetry mentor, write this intro for my poem in the latest Plume anthology.

[thirdity]

“There has been much discussion of the uninterpretable answer to the question: ‘are you lying?’ But ask someone next to you, very softly so as not to wake him: ‘are you asleep?’ If he replies that he is, then that makes him a liar. But he can reply by pretending to be asleep, which is not actually lying, but pretending to lie. There is a big difference, since this is a lovers’ game. The question itself is a lovers’ game because it assumes the partner is not asleep while making every effort not to wake him. Besides, these are the same questions: do you love me? are you lying to me? are you asleep? And the reply — yes, I love you, yes, I’m lying, yes, I’m asleep — is equally paradoxical. But it is not untruthful. It simply comes from another world which is not the truth of the first. 'Yes, I’m asleep. Yes, I’m lying. Yes, I love you’: all these answers reflect a marvellous somnambulism and, all in all, a very clear grasp of the relations we establish with reality when we are sleeping, lying or in love.”

— Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories

[redd956]

Words: Movement

Skitter

Blur

Vault

Keel

Crouch

Hustle

Tip-toe

Sneak

Squeeze

Dart

Dash

Rendezvous

Encircle

Tackle

Shy

Sprint

Trudge

Shuffle

Limp

Pitter-Patter

Sulk

Stomp

Slam

Reserved

Hunt

Hide

Squat

Squabble

Teeter

Sway

Flop

Half-hearted

Slip

Stumble

Cautiously

Quiet

Slink

Ease

Motion

Frantic

Obliviously

Stub

Halt

Skid

Slide

Drag

Dodge

Swish

Jab

Swing

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Another List of "Beautiful" Words

to include in your next poem

Avidulous - somewhat greedy.

Breviloquent - marked by brevity of speech.

Compotation - a drinking or tippling together.

Crimpy - of weather; unpleasant; raw and cold.

Desiderium - an ardent desire or longing; especially, a feeling of loss or grief for something lost.

Dyspathy - lack of sympathy.

Ebriosity - habitual intoxication.

Epitasis - the part of a play developing the main action and leading to the catastrophe.

Fantod - a state of irritability and tension.

Graumangere - a great meal.

Grimoire - a magician's manual for invoking demons and the spirits of the dead.

Hiemal - of or relating to winter.

Illaudable - deserving no praise.

Impluvious - wet with rain.

Innominate - having no name; unnamed; also, “anonymous”.

Juberous - doubtful and hesitating.

Noctilucous - shining at night.

Poetaster - an inferior poet.

Psychrophilic - thriving at a relatively low temperature.

Quiddity - the essential nature or ultimate form of something: what makes something to be the type of thing that it is.

Repullulate - to bud or sprout again.

Retrogradation - a backward movement.

Semiustulate - half burnt or consumed by fire.

Tenebrific - causing gloom or darkness.

Unparadiz’d - brought from joy to miserie.

If any of these words make it into your next poem/story, please tag me. Or leave a link in the replies. I'd love to read them!

beautiful words list pt. 2 pt. 3 pt. 4

[literaryvein-reblogs]

more "beautiful" words for your next poem

Afterwit - wisdom or perception that comes after it can be of use.

Antapology - a response to an apology.

Bovarism - a conception of oneself as other than one is to the extent that one's general behavior is conditioned or dominated by the conception.

Cogitabund - given to deep thought; having the appearance of being in deep meditation.

Dolorifuge - something that banishes or mitigates grief.

Doundrins - afternoon drinkings.

Epistemophilia - love of knowledge; specifically: excessive striving for or preoccupation with knowledge.

Estivate - to spend the summer usually at one place.

Eudaemonic - producing happiness.

Eye-servant - one that attends to duty only when watched.

Formication - an abnormal sensation resembling that made by insects creeping in or on the skin.

Hygeiolatry - worship of health; excessive devotion to hygiene.

Nidifugous - leaving the nest soon after hatching.

Obsibilate - to make a whistling noise, as trees stirred with winds.

Undusous - full of surges and waves.

If any of these words make their way into your next poem/story, please tag me, or leave a link in the replies. I would love to read them!

beautiful words list pt. 1 / pt. 2

[twixnmix]

Sade photographed by Jean-Claude Deutsch for Paris Match at her home in London, 1985.

[pyritetears-deactivated20260218]

Jean Micheal Basquiat, 1985

[darrylcalmandstrong09]

New Blog. African Medicine: Yoruba Spiritualty & Philosophy

“Traditional African medicine was, and is, effective in healing disease. Right diet, healthy lifestyle, and spiritualty are essential ingredients for recovery, whether in modern medicine of traditional healing. Root doctors provided the authority in our community in which such principles were grounded and preserved. This deep legacy continues to affect us.” – Dr. Tariq M. Sawandi, PhD, author of African Medicine: A Guide to Yoruba Divination and Herbal Medicine: A Complete Guide to Yoruba Healing Science and African Herbal Remedies

To find out more about the Yoruba (African) Spiritual and Philosophical practices before the Transatlantic slave trade, click here: https://rb.gy/pyq8ll

[rozieramati]

Jean-Michel Basquiat by Lee Jaffe in Pattaya, Thailand in 1983