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Soft marble

Photo: Elpidro

The Traitè introduced the famous explanatory fiction of the sentient statue was later highly vulnerable to the physiologists, but it well served Condillac as a paradigm to demonstrate how an individual organism might acquire faculties. The statue itself represents man’s perfect organic structure; were it depicted, it would doubtless appear with the regular and harmonious proportions and the generalized physiognomy characteristic of neoclassical beauty. It signified in Condillac’s exposition the universal organic substratum and sensorium, which was the endowment of all men and which provided the foundation and seat of all mental powers. As the exposition opens, the senses of the statue are described as “asleep”, and hence the “soul” which later animates the statue is conceived as totally lacking in “ideas”. It has by definition never been penetrated by any sense impression. In its course the text proceeds to awaken and unlock the sleeping senses one by one, beginning with smell as the sense which contributes least to human knowledge. Progressively step by step tries to demonstrate how from simple sense experiences alone (like the smell of a rose), the soul in the statue would acquire its full complement of desire and passions, and the faculties of memory, association, judgement, etc.

Michael Donnelly – Managing the Mind

01. Wynton MarsalisCanon In D
(Portrait of Wynton Marsalis)

02. BachAria De La Suite N°3
(Classical chillout lounge / 2006)

03. Ennio MorriconePiano Piano
(The legend of 1900 / 1999)

04. Michael NymanThe Heart Asks Pleasure First
(The piano / 2004)

05. Jethro TullBourée
(A little light music / 2006)

06. Giovanni AlleviCome Sei Veramente
(No concept / 2005)

07. Yann TiersenLe Matin
(Amelie / 2001)

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Category: Acoustic

Free pass for mature clubbing

Photo: Corbis

The hotel Adlon became our club. In the Adlon lobby we met and gossiped and exchanged news. In the Adlon bar we rolled dice for drinks… When I was first in Berlin, I recall, Dorothy Thompson and Sigrid Shultz wouldn’t come into the Adlon bar; they stayed in lady-like aloofness, in the lobby or restaurant. Later they relented; but Sigrid never ordered anything but a Shultz cocktail. She wouldn’t tell me what it was. I asked Fred, the barman. “Das ist ein Geheimnis!” he answered. I asked Franz, another barman. “Dat iss a secret!” he replied. Finaly Sigrid herself told me. A Shultz cocktail is composed of equal parts of orange juice, orange juice, and orange juice.

T. R. Ybarra – Young man of the world

01. YoavClub Thing
(Charmed & Strange / 2008)

02. James PantsWere Through
(Welcome / 2008)

03. Liquid LiquidCavern
(The Perfect Beats, Vol. 2 / 1998)

04. Boat ClubWarmer Climes
(Caught the Breeze / 2007)

05. Poni HoaxAntibodies
(Images of Sigrid / 2008)

Note: the excerpt and the name of Pony Hoax’s album mix perfectly… this was not wanted, it’s a pure coincidence: I can’t believe it.

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Category: Electronica

Yankee cubano

Image: Riders-Online

The prevailing mood in Cuba, however was no longer passive. Since 1922, inflamed by the proclamations of Argentinian students at the university od Cordoba (1918), and influenced by “anti-yankee” feeling of most Latin American intellectuals (for example, José Vasconcelos in Mexico and Manuel Ugarte in Argentina) and the revolutionary events in Mexico, students at Havana University began demanding the forging of a “new Cuba”, free from corruption and yankee tutelage.

Leslie Bethell – Cuba: A Short History

01. LenineRosebud
(Lenine / 2006)

02. Habib KoiteCigarette Abana
(Baro / 2001)

03. Los Munequitos De MatanzasCoros De Clave
(Live in New York / 1998)

04. Pink MartiniLilly
(Hang on Little Tomato / 2004)

05. OrishasA Lo Cubano
(A Lo Cubano / 2000)

Note: as I referenced an italian singer into a frech playlist, now I refence a brasilian artist into a playlist that focus on Cuba. I’m not a scientist, I’m not here to calibrate elements with the reference manual in hands, I just do the mix I like.This playlist is decicated to my beautiful brother Jo.

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Category: Folk

When a vibe is a wow

Image: Phil Douglis

On May 18, we gave you some ideas on where to shop for a vibrator. Now it’s the time to talk about how. Here’s a checklist you may want copy and carry in your purse next time you go shopping.
- Purpose. What do you want to stimulate? Your clitoris? Vagina? G-spot? Anus? All of the above? Will you use your vibe with a partner, or alone?
- Portability. Is your vibrator going to stay in your bedroom, or will it accompany you on the road? If it’s the latter, look the smaller, battery-operated or rechargable electric vibes.
- Noise. Do you care if your neighbors hear? If so, your best bets are virtually silent coil-operated electric vibes. Battery-operated and wand vibrators tend to be louder.
- Intensity. Do you want gentle or strong vibrations? A general Rule: the smaller the battery, the less the vibration.
- Price. A vibrator will run you anywhere from $10 to $80 or more, but think of it as an investment, and remember that you get what you pay for. An electric vibrator from a brand-name manufactirer will last you for years.
- Shape. Vibrators these days come in a truly mind-boggling assortment of shapes and styles. Do you want something realistic or smooth?
- Color. Yes, color. Do you prefer flash tones? Or do you want to get more festive with metallic, glow-in-the-dark, or jewel-toned toys?

Cynthia Gentry – The Bedside Orgasm Book: 365 Days of Sexual Ecstasy

01. DameroThings Gone(feat. Headkit)
(Happy In Gray / 2007)

02. ModeselektorDeboutonner
(Happy Birthday! / 2007)

03. Female FutureBarbara Morgenstern Robert Lippok
(Transatlantic / 2006 )

04. John TejadaThe end of it all
(Cleaning Sounds Is a Filthy Business / 2006)

05. PalukaUrban echos version2
(Unreleased / 2007)

Note: without headphones or without a lot of volume you’ll have not any vibe. When you swim into the waves of sound – on a slightly small dancefloor – you do the last mix shaking your head between the speakers, so creating your own vibes.

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Category: Electronica

Tropical privè

Image: walfrido

Indeed there is a beauty in a tropical night in the depth of the dark blue sky the lambent purity of the stars and the resplendent clearness of the moon that spreads over the rich landscape and the balmy groves a charm more captivating than the splendour of the day.

Washington Irving – History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus

01. Thievery CorporationExilio (Exile)
(The Richest Man In Babylon / 2002)

02. Rinaldo DonatiA Casa Do Querer
(Casa Brasil / 2004)

03. Willi WrightRight On For The Darkness
( 12” / ? )

04. PainèBene (Quantic Mix)
(One Offs, Remixes & B Sides / 2006)

05. Boozoo BajouNight Over Manaus
(Satta! / 2001)

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Category: Motel de Moka

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down. [1]


Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.) [2]



O long-silent Sybil,
you of the winged dreams,
Speak out from your temple of light
as the serious constellations
with Greek names
still stare down on us
as a lighthouse moves its megaphone
over the sea
Speak out and shine upon us
the sea-light of Greece
the diamond light of Greece

Far-seeing Sybil, forever hidden,
Come out of your cave at last
And speak to us in the poet's voice
the voice of the fourth person singular
the voice of the inscrutable future
the voice of the people mixed
with a wild soft laughter--
And give us new dreams to dream,
Give us new myths to live by! [3]


So our princes who have lost their principalities after many years’ of possession shouldn’t blame their loss on fortuna. The real culprit is their own indolence, going through quiet times with no thought of the possibility of change (it’s a common human fault, failing to prepare for tempests unless one is actually in one!). And when eventually bad times did come, they thought of •flight rather than •self-defence, hoping that the people, upset by conquerors’ insolence, would recall them. This course of action may be all right when there’s no alternative, but it is not all right to neglect alternatives and choose this one; it amounts to voluntarily falling because you think that in due course someone will pick you up. If you do get rescued (and you probably won’t), that won’t make you secure; the only rescue that is really helpful to you is the one performed by you, the one that depends on yourself and your virtù. [4]