Saturday, 10 February 2007

Regina II (or Хелен Миррен)

Last night I saw the first chapter of "Elizabeth I". I loved it but won't be saying anything about it till I watch the second part. But there is this one thing that surprised me a lot. Remember the other day I talked about the film "The Queen"? I didn't know this:
Helen Mirren plays both Elizabeth's. I didn't know and suddenly she appeared. Very good because I think she is brilliant.

Monday, 5 February 2007

Realidad y Ficción

¿Realidad o ficción?


Foto arriba: Amsterdam, Julio 2003
Foto abajo: Amsterdam, Febrero 2002 (Family Guy - Temporada 3 - Capítulo 20 Road to Europe)

Quote of the day

Learning is what happens to you
when you are not too busy studying.



Based on a quote from Lennon's Beautiful boy (darling boy).

Saturday, 3 February 2007

Start

So it happens to be true, actually.

Not long ago, a new spot for Volkswagen Polo aired in Spain (you can see it at the bottom). It talks about Kyle McDonald, who swapped one red paperclip for a house (many trades in between). There is a contest to find the most original trade proposal, rewarded by an actual Polo.
I find it very very interesting how society is sometimes. There are those who swap something that costs 8 for something that costs 10 or the actual 10. And there are those who do the other way around.

I guess there will be hundreds of initial trades or completed trades on the net, by now. But, hey, isn't this blogging thing about sharing what impressed us, and of taking this from here, that from there, blending it together and posting it?

So, I am willing to trade the Natural History Museum T-Rex teddy on the photo. I don't have a challenge, I don't know what I want to get. I just want to trade it for something else bigger or better.
[Other teddies available, just ask.]

E-mail me if you are interested (address on profile).
Hoping to hear from you.



Friday, 2 February 2007

Planeta sin luz

Como muchos sabréis, ayer noche (evening, vespre... me falta esta palabra) media Europa apagó las luces durante cinco minutos. Yo me sumé a esta "tregua" que le "dimos" a La Tierra y, un poquito antes de las 19:55 hora española, bajé los plomos. En el correo electrónico que yo había recibido hablaban de apagar las luces, no los fusibles. Pero yo pensé, ¿y qué pasa con la nevera? Si está encendida 24/7, y a hora, en esta "tregua" no la paro, nada cambia. Lo único que iba a cambiar era la la luz de la sala y el ordenador. Pero, ¿y el teléfono?, ¿el calentador?, ¿el agua (porque la bomba que hay en mi edificio es eléctrica)?, y un largo etcétera de pequeñas cositas que tenemos enchufadas por todas partes que, aunque no las estemos usadas, tienen la luz de StandBy encendida. La tele, por ejemplo, que apagamos por el mando en vez de por el botón, y eso que la tipa de Fairy nos dijo que nos ahorrábamos un 10% o algo así. O la TDT, que parece que no se me apaga nunca o el DVD. Y así, hasta el fin.
Pues eso, que bajé los plomos. Y salí al balcón a mirar. Mis vecinos parece que no se enteraron. Los de justo delante quizás sí, pero no estoy seguro ya que la luz de la cocina seguía encendida, quizás sólo apagaron la luz de la sala como hacemos por costumbre cuando vemos la tele, aunque es malísimo para nuestros ojos.
París, Barcelona, Madrid... luces apagadas en los monumentos importantes. La torre Eiffel apagada, todo un sobresalto. Pero sólo fue unos minutos.
¿Y ahora qué? ¿Nos sentamos de nuevo en nuestros sofás sintéticos con las luces encendidas y sonreímos pensando, "Vaya, he salvado al mundo y sólo he tardado cinco minutos"?
Ya he hablado varias veces sobre ecología (1, 2, 3, 4, ±5), y sí, me considero un ecoFreak. Lo reciclo todo, lo reuso todo y lo reduzco todo. Cuando voy al super llevo mis propias bolsas (que siempre llevo conmigo) y los del super ya me conocen y no me embolsan la compra. Soy un friqui, sí.
El caso es que yo me pregunto ¿qué ha cambiado? Nada.
Pero otra vez veo como "el hombre" se piensa que es el amo y señor de este mundo tanto como para destruirlo como para salvarlo. Decimos "Oh, estamos matando a La Tierra" y alguien contesta "Tenemos que salvar nuestro planeta". No es nuestro, darlingas. La Tierra es de ella misma. Una amiga que es bióloga me dijo una vez: si la tierra quisiera acabar con nosotros lo podría hacer un un [chasquido de dedos]". Y tiene razón. ¿Por qué creemos que la tierra va a destruirse? ¿A caso no es posible que se genere otra vida tras nuestra muerte? ¿No "fuimos generados" tras la muerte de los reptiles-grandes? Osea, imaginemos, los casquetes polares se disuelven y nos morimos todos (en contra de lo que Kevin Costner creería) y, de repente, de las miles de especies que existen debajo de la superficie acuática, que tienen una vida mucho más intensa de lo que pensamos (porque, como siempre, pensamos que si no caminan por donde nosotros caminamos no son merecedores de nuestra atención), surge una nueva "sociedad" de entes pensantes. Digamos los tiburones, que son el depredador que está en la punta de la pirámide, más o menos. O no, quizás todo, o casi todo muere (las cucarachas podrían sobrevivir una vez más) y surje una nueva especie y dentro de miles de años verán nuestros restos e intentarán dilucidar como era nuestra sociedad. O quizás las cucarachas mismas serán las que gobiernen La Tierra.
Pero nosotros seguimos pensando que somos el centro de este universo y que nada puede pasar sin que nosotros intervengamos. Nos morimos todos y la vida sigue, te digo.
Así que, lo que nos queda ahora, es alargar "nuestra agonía" como lo hacen los médicos, porque salvar no vamos a salvar nada si Nuestra Madre Tierra no quiere ser salvada o está hasta el moño de nosotros. Un par de tsunamis, una glaciación y ala, todos muertos.
De momento, como Ricardo Castella, le encuentro la buena noticia a todo: yo me voy pronto a Londres que, de aquí nada, tendrá clima Mediterráneo y, si me apuras, playa y todo. Ya estoy en trámites para comprarme una casita en primera línea de mar – en Lleida.

Un domingo de 2003, cuando todavía vivía en Londres, leí un artículo en el EPS sobre la contaminación lumínica en las Islas Canarias. ¿Por qué no empezamos por ahí?

Monday, 29 January 2007

Regina

The other day I saw "The Queen", the wonderful Stephen Frears movie. I've seen few of his movies. I enjoyed "Mrs Henderson Presents", which OST I am starting to sing; I "suffered" with "Dirty Pretty Things", and I was at the hotel business then –and in London–, imagine; and I so loved "My Beautiful Launderette", which I should see again.
So now "The Queen". I must say it wasn't what I was expecting. I was expecting a ride through the life of the multi-Queen Elizabeth II and found that it was all centered about and around the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the People's Princess.

The day Di died my mother had been trying to wake me for hours. Then, she burst that Diana had died. As a gay I loved her, as a human I admired her. I jumped out of bed.
That day, like when the Pope Karol Józef Wojtyła died, or in September 11, there was nothing else in the telly.
I cried, I must say. Because I couldn't believe she had died. You don't expect people who you "know" since you were little to suddenly die. Yes, it was a shame when the Pope died and I felt sorry and sad, because he was "my" Pope even though I don't even believe in his religion; though, I was "expecting" this to happen, as he was old and ill. Diana... no, she was neither old nor ill. She was just perfect and perfect was supposed to remain forever. Unfortunately, she didn't. She passed away and left us here, wondering what was going to happen. After that, the gossip magazines and the yellow press have had it very hard to find someone like her. Not only for the fact that she was the mother of a future king of the UK but because she was nice and kind, helpful with the ones in need and beautiful. Now we have Peaches.
I cried watching the movie. I cried again with Helen Mirren. I hope she gets the Academy Award.

I felt terribly sad and terribly sorry for Diana. For her and for her sons. For Charles and for Elizabeth. I know many people has said that before, but it has to be true: no money can buy happiness or peace. I don't want money, I don't like money. Money ruins the world (besides what Jude sings).
My family is just a "normal" family, we don't have bodyguards. So something can happen to us anytime (hope not). But thinking you have everything under control and something breaks apart is too sad.

Life is mysterious. Life is an enigma. Let's live life, let's not try to control it.

PS I loved to see HRH matching telly. I always thought of this: what programs do they watch? I would be the kind of king who is always renting DVDs. Watching the news would be like bringing work home.

Thursday, 18 January 2007

Cut here

For the past few weeks I have been trying to avoid any contact with politics. The situation in Spain isn't wonderful. The leader of the opposition does not know how to "discuss" and when to support the govern. He only knows to insult, and frankly, he should learn new words and insults that were coined during the last fifty years.

[Let me interrupt myself to explain something funny. First (not funny but just kind of informative): Spain, although a Kingdom, does not have Prime Minister but President –in words–. Second: the leader of the the ruling party, PSOE, is called the 'General Secretary' but the leader of PP, the opposition, is called 'President'. I just find it so funny that we use different words for same things, ones that are harmless (President-Prime Minister) others that show how they think (Secretary-President).]

But since the terrorist attack the other day it has been quite impossible to avoid Politics. But, at least, I have decided not to watch the News but to read them [I also hear the news on the radio but they are five minutes news' breaks]. This way, if I don't like something, I can just turn the page over or skip the paragraph.
Two days ago it was very quiet at work and I was having a tea while turning pages of the paper. But something got my attention and made me very happy and concerned at the same time.
So it seems that Scotland is thinking of getting the independence and, as per what news say, it seems that surveys show that +50% of English wouldn't mind it to happen.
We have talked about that. We have compared it to Spain, to the situation in Catalonia and in the Basque Country and it seems obvious to me that there is nothing similar. No common points. We are far behind them. But what seems most important, for me, is the feeling of nation. So Scottish feel that are not the same as English. Till here fine. But the distinction comes when the English don't want to be mixed in the same bag as Scots. This is the différance: Spanish (I mean, neither-Basque-nor-Galician-nor-Catalan-nor-etc. Spanish people) feel Spain as One and Unite (almost like " One, Big and Free" from the Falangists, ohoho... not quite, not quite). Or at least this is what is shown in the news.
I guess this happens because Castille has always been stronger than Aragon or, at least, has been trying to rule over us.

I am not going to talk about what will happen, what can happen and what would happen: I leave that for the journalists who are the ones who know about it. I don't want to talk about what did happen, cos this is for the historians. Though, I just want to say that I find it funny and interesting how at about the same period in history, both Spain and Great Britain were created. I mean, that at the beginning of the XVII century the kingdoms of Scotland, Ireland and England - and - the kingdoms of Navarra, Aragón and Castilla y León (plus Asturias and Galicia) (plus Portugal that later was lost along with many other territories) - both groups were united in one same king (one each). In the British Isles it was James I of England (VI Stuart) and in the case of Spain it was Carlos I of Spain (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor). Though, again, there are differences because Charles was King of Spain as it is today (almost) but James was three times king. Another century had to go by till Scotland and England were definitely united and another century more to be united with Ireland.
Though, it was then, in 1603 that Scotland last had its own king (although, what would you expect if the last Scottish king to speak Gaelic was James' great grandfather, James IV - last King of Aragón to speak Catalan (to the court) was, if I am not wrong, Fernando I of Aragón).

I don't want to say if I support or not, the independence of Scotland, cos I am neither Scottish nor English and it is not I who is going to decide. You have read the lines above so you can get conclusions of what I think. Do not take any assumptions from the image because I did that to illustrate the situation.
Thinking of a great thing as splitting a country in two is something I really can't imagine. Sure, I have studied about Yugoslavia, Ireland and such. But not even the former that happened at a stage of my life I could remember, influenced me at any rate (now it does through the memory of friends). I only remember my sister's slogans.
And now, I am preparing myself to experience the "possible" separation of a country. Whether it happens or not, I can't wait to live it.

The photo in the background of the image,
where the sea should be, shows one of the most known Scottish places,
Loch Ness, taken on a rainy day of July 2004.

Listening to "Graines d'étoiles"
by Émilie Simon and Perry Blake
from the self-named album of the former.

Update: I couldn't find this photo.