We on the screen

When we go to the cinema, we want to feel reflected in the movies somehow. Even when we watch terror movies, we want to feel that it is us who is running around escaping from the devil of the mask. We can easily find a counterpart in drama or comedy movies, because they reflect some bits of reality.
The other night I watched "When Sally Met Harry" a classic funny movie starred by Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. I think most of people can find themselves reflected on one of the characters.
But for gay people, it is important to watch gay-themed movies, especially since most of us don't live in either Manchester or Pittsburgh, and have the lives of those in "Queer As Folk" (US version). Most of us have normal quiet lives and we do not sleep around and have exciting adventures as the scripts describe. Though, if they really represented the live in the screens, no-one would watch it.
Also, as Spanish, I find it so different "our" lives than the lives of those characters in "reality alike" series as the ones I have just mentioned or "Sex and the City". Starting for the fact that we normally work, so it is so difficult to find the time to see our friends (that's why, I guess, Carrie is a freelance writer). But as well, because (correct me if I am wrong), at least here in Spain, the blind date thing is not something very common. Yes, I guess the let's-arrange-to-have-sex thing is, especially between gay people, but I mean dates. Do we date? I don't thinks so. At least I have never dated anyone. My relationships have gone as: meeting someone in a party, or introduced by a friend (not planned), dance a bit (there's always music), and some time later (time meaning few weekends), after knowing each other a bit, kiss for first time while dancing Eiffel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)". And from that moment on, we meet often, we have dinner, we go to parties together, and so on. But I never got the "I'll call you" good-night-sentence (perhaps because all of them are dying to call me, LOL).
Or perhaps this is only a language thing: when in Spanish we say "Estamos saliendo juntos" ("We are going out (together)"), in English, would we say "We are dating"? I am not really sure, because when you start dating someone, some time in the future the word 'exclusive' will be added, i.e. until then, you can also date other people, even double dating. In the Spanish version, when you start "going out" with someone, it is for granted that you are exclusive: some time in the future your best friend will come to you and tell you that has seen him/her with another guy/girl going out of a coffee shop and you would go mad at him/her and it will turn out to be his/her cousin (or this is what s/he says).
So, either Americans (I say Americans because most of the movies/series we see are from the US) are too frivolous or "we" are too serious.
Also there is the possibility that, at the end, this is are only movies and they reflect what we want to see. Or what we can, because, is there any woman in the entire world that has sex with their bra on? or who, just after having sex, covers herself up to the neck (it isn't cold, huh) while him is covered just up to the belt? Or who, when going to the toilet, takes the sheet with her (when it is so difficult and annoying to make the bed again, and if you have to make it again, you will obviously have to uncover yourself)?
This is something I have always distinguished between US and Spanish movies: in the second ones, you will always see some tits, most of the time a pussy, and some times a dick (even at "Lucía y el Sexo" you can see the erection in its process, when I have never seen an erection on a commercial American movie, not that it is what I look for but it is part of the life and of sex and, starting for the fact that there is always a sex scene in a movie, even if it is a movie about nuns and priests...).
So, back to movies and back to gays. I was saying that it is very important for people to watch movies that connect with them. Not that a librarian has to watch only movies with librarians or book keepers (say "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself" or "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover", which actually are worth to watch, both of them).
So, last night I watched to themed movies. Gay themed, that is.
The first one is an Israeli movie I have been willing to watch for a long time: "Yossi & Jagger". Someone told me about it very long time ago and I didn't have the opportunity to watch it until yesterday. Although some people told they didn't like it at all, I thought I had to see it for myself (perhaps it is the uniform thing, LOL). I liked it. There are some things in the movie that were very interesting, although as a whole, there was something missing, I wasn't getting something.
Here you have a bit of it, what I have found.

I also watched "Eating Out", a movie I came across somehow the other day. One of the main characters, Mark, played by Ryan Carnes, who was in "General Hospital" (never seen that series), also plays Justin, Andrew Van De Kamp's boyfriend at "Desperate Housewives" (both series at ABC (http://abc.go.com/), actually).
So, this movie is a comedy and I actually found it very funny. There are somethings in it that, I think, are steps forward for American movies.
By the way, there is one of the songs in the soundtrack by Ivri Lider, and I really like his music.
Here you have a bit I have found.

Tonight I am watching I have a movie waiting: "Gadjo Dilo". This isn't a gay-themed movie, it is about the inter-cultural difficulties between Gypsies and a French guy. I wanted to see this movie for a long time. The french guy is Romain Duris, the same guy as "L'auberge espagnole" and it's second part "Les poupées russes ", who I find very handsome. Obviously, the Gypsy topic interests me a lot, but he is cute.

Oh, and I saw this silly Spanish movie the other day, called "Año Mariano" (Mariano, a part of related to Marijuana, means something of or related to Virgin Mary). It is real silly, but, hey, I had a good laugh.

What am I going to watch next? You tell me!

Symbols

A couple of months ago, I finished a book that took me a while to read. It is not that it was a long book, just that I always read a few books at the same time so I can read what I feel like each moment. Also, the fact that when I was living in London I used to read in the tube and got so used to that I stopped reading elsewhere so, here, it is hard to get used to lay down a bit and read (I never read before sleeping). Also, the obvious fact that I am not English so I read slower in the language. But this time it was even slower becauseit was a rather complicated book.

I have always liked books about children (moreover if they are speciall or difficult) like "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon, or "Soy Julia" (also available in French: "Moi, Julia") by Antonio Martínez. Or even "Never Ending Story" by Ende, which is also about a boy in problems.
The thing is that Christopher, the main character of "The Curious Incident..." is autistic; Julia, of "Soy/Moi Júlia", who "writes" writes the book at the age of two, has lissencephaly and this really makes me think if I am not a kind of sadist for reading this kind of books. Though, "Soy Julia" is hilarious and "The Curious...", also funny, but very touching, emotive and special.
So, this book I finished. It is titled "Glyph" and is written by Percival Everett. This time the child who also "writes" the book is Ralph, a baby (yeah, can't remember his age, but it was something like 18 months) truly gifted. He can read, write, compose poetry and even write philosophy essays. But he has chosen not to speak. This is all what I can say, I don't want to spoil it; this you can find it on the back cover or at Amazon when you order it.
What makes this book so special a part of being a very interesting adventure of a baby? The fact that he, a part of talking philosophy, he talks linguistics, language. He has no uttered a word in his life but he knows language perfectly.
It is amazing and sometimes you just can't believe how great it is.

I don't want to talk long about the book as I think everybody should read it. I would like to type here a short story which is in the book and titled "No place for a pig" which is absolutely fabulous. Though, I can't as it would be plagiarism. Though, I want to add four quotes that I find very interesting.

"Whether atoms, monads, or words, things are made up of small things and small things are made of smaller things and, to some extend, my understanding of the whole world depends on my comprehension of its constituent parts".

"Humans invented language. So says the innocent. Language invented humans. So says the cynic. My parents made an offspring. Or was it the case that I made them parents? There I was again, making parents of people. Chicken? Egg? Omelette? The beginnings of sense is to realize that the term sense is a stand-in for whatever sense can be made within a particular context, just a thing serves for any noun substantive, just a quality serves for some adjective. Aliquid pro aliquo. To say that in some sense that things has certain quality means nothing, except here where it works to make my point. He was making sense tells you nothing of what he was saying. He had a certain quality. He came in waving this thing."

"
"I feel sick," she said. "Not physically sick, but lost. I don't know where I am or where I'm going. I've always know exactly where I was going. I knew where I was going to college and graduate school and where I was going to do my post doc and even where I was going to publish my first article and my first book an I knew it all when I was only twelve. And now, I don't know where I'm going to sleep tomorrow night. Direction has always been a kind of neurosis for me and to have it taken away, well, it's saddening. But also freeing. (...)"
"

"The water that is spirit, the water of all things, the water of tears, the water of blood, dream water, streams, and rivers where life begins, where things are washed, like Circe in that creek, the dreams like waters, mixing with water, like water, the water that is kiss, water, that drink, full of parasites, drink it only when it flows faster than you can walk."

"I wondered while hiding there in the hallowed walls in god's house whether tigers knew they were striped cats, whether mules found each other stubborn, whether language ever lacked meaning. I wondered whether meanings were the stripes on words and marvelled at how words always erased themselves but never disappeared. I wondered where the window of meaning opened and what was in its place before, nonmeaning? nonsense? nondisjunction? Nonfeasence? The baby was bored in the back room."

[If the publisher, the author, or whoever is bothered of this being here, it will be removed. Just let me know.]

So, here you go. I hope you have enjoyed this quotations and am sure you will enjoy the whole book.

Listening to Joanna Rubio : "We're off to See the Wizard"

BTW, it is so funny that this song is sounding now. Why?
Check this amd you'll understand.

Image taken from Amazon (above link).

Échale sal

¡Uau, esto sí que han sido vacaciones! Desde junio que no escribo ningún post. De hecho, en mi AlterEgo sí que he escrito algún post pero tampoco muchos, la verdad.

Estos últimos meses mis pensamientos se han reducido bastante. No sé por qué. Quizás por el calor o quizás porque, al ver a mi padre todos los días, los temas de discusión salen antes de mi cabeza.

Este verano he ido a unos cuantos conciertos de un grupo local Statuas de Sal (y también). El primero, como ya os conté, fue en el concierto SOS Eivissa. Pero tras ése vinieron otros tres y me quedé con ganas de ir el jueves pasado al de las Dàlies. La verdad es que no es el tipo de música que más me gusta, pero tienen un directo muy bueno y unas letras fenomenales.
Mis primas, que también son de la isla, son fans, qué digo fans, ¡groupies! Y, tanto mi hermano como yo, nos hemos vuelto un poco groupies. Y luego nos vamos con ellos a tomar copas y lo pasamos muy bien. La verdad, es que es un grupo que lo vale y es una pena que tantos triunfitos estén ganando tanta plata que, aunque eso no es lo que importa, ni siquiera el reconocimiento, pero estos chicos lo valen. Aún no he escuchado sus álbumes, pero no creo que me vayan a decepcionar. El directo es muy bueno y, por lo general, los álbumes suelen ser mejores. Estoy ya esperando que salga el próximo disco para comprarlo, que no es uno de esos grupos que ganan pasta larga y que les gusta estar en el Top Manta o en eMule. De hecho, a esos grupos no les importa la piratería porqué ganan suficiente.

Sí, el dinero no es lo que importa, hipotéticamente. Pero, cuando te pasas la vida partiéndote el culo para sacar un proyecto adelante, la recompensa se recibe con los brazos abiertos.
No sé si hay manera de comprar sus discos por Internet, pero ya me enteraré.
Ah, por cierto, hicieron la versión rock del himno del Espanyol.

Hace días que pensaba en escribir un post para dejar constancia de este nuevo grupo que acabo de conocer. Pero es que hoy, que he estado jugando con Blogger ya que han hecho algunos cambios (que vendrán pronto cuando pueda hacer cambios en el HTML con el sistema en Layout, que aún no está disponible), he revisado las visitas y he visto que alguien había entrado en el blog a través de una búsqueda sobre éste grupo.

Más abajo varéis un vídeo para que lo disfrutéis, y nunca mejor dicho. Arriba tenéis los enlaces para su web y para su MySpace. Además de para el Club de Fans (aunque parece que el web no funciona muy bien). Pero, cualquier otra pregunta –e.g. cómo obtener discos, etc.–, dejáis un comentario y hago lo que pueda.
Yo no entiendo tanto como otros sobre música, pero creo que valen la pena. Simplemente sé si me gusta o no, y Statuas de Sal, definitivamente, me gustan.

Otra de las razones por las que se tropiezan con mis blogs es buscando el significado de Habibi. Lo he visto varias veces, hoy también estaba. Que quede claro, Habibi significa: "Mi amor", "Cariño", "Darling".

Y está el clásico "vida del caracol" en todas sus variantes, ya se si es larga, si es corta o como es en general. Es una pena, porqué no tengo ni idea de cómo es la vida del caracol. Lástima que nadie busca la vida del Caracol Aventurero lorquiano, que es el que dio nombre al blog. Pero, de hecho, a pesar de que el motivo fue ese precioso poema, que tanto me gustaba cuando era pequeño, me he dado cuenta, sobretodo últimamente, que realmente yo soy un caracol. Por lo de la casa a cuestas, más que nada. Pero bueno, esta es otra historia y debe ser contada en otra ocasión.

Aquí dejo el vídeo y hasta pronto.

Statuas de Sal – "Merengue"

PS Cuando trabajaba de monitor infantil y ya no podía más, siempre les decía "¿Quién quiere jugar a las estatuas de sal?" pero nunca recibí una respuesta positiva.

Tempus fugit

Wow, that was a long time since I wrote last post. I'm on a kind of a intellectual holiday. In fact, I am still studying as I have two exams in a few weeks, so my brain IS working; though, they are things I already studied so I am not putting that much effort onto it.

Apart from that, nothing much is happening in my life lately. There is something that is bugging me out but I want to take some time to think about it and expose it properly.
I am still in this island. It is full of people, full of foreigners –especially Italians–. Though, it is not that hot these days, so I am happy.
As you can see, I have changed the banner of the blog. It is not a big thing, but I get happy with small things. For me is an achievement: it is the first time I used Flash. It wasn't difficult, though. In the future I will do something nicer, but, for the time being, it is just what I wanted.
I like learning new things, learning to use new tools. Just, I don't have projects to use them.

My life is going through a moment of change. I already pealed, so the change of skin is done. I guess I will have to change my shell now.
I am a snail now. (That was a plagiarism of "I am a bird now" by Antony and the Johnsons.)

I love tales, I don't know if I have said that before. And the other day I got caught by the Spelling TV series "Charmed" –which I hadn't seen before– because that chapter was about fairy tales. So, the chapter finished and the next started and I realize that the theme was a cover of the famous song by The Smiths "How Soon Is Now?", recorded by Love Split Love, which also was coverd by t.A.T.u.
So, since I heard that song again (I have the The Smith's CD with that song back home), I can't take it out of my head. Will that mean something?

How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths Written by Johnny Marr and Morrisey

I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and the heir
Of nothing in particular

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

There's a club, if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go, and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home
And you cry
And you want to die

When you say it's gonna happen now,
Well, when exactly do you mean?
See I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone

You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does

Photo taken from here.