I have been following really close the Mexican news for the last couple of weeks and this has nothing to do with the fact that the news sites I used charged me they fees automatically and without a previous advise. Mexico is in a certain period which shows that every 100 years we got into sever conditions. First we have the economic crisis, of course it is world wide but Mexico is also part of the world, it is not? Then we have flu (for some malevolently called Mexican flu), then we got this tide effect which produces huge waves in the so called Pacific Ocean so now tourists are not allowed to get into the the sea, finally Mexico win the Golden Cup in Soccer. All these facts are misleading. All of them show us something important and all of them are detrimental to our country.
I would like to write about all of them, but I just wonder about the pattern. How Allende, Aldama, the Dominguez seen and interpreted their situation. How about Madero, Orozco and Zapata? Did they see what we see now.
Hopefully it is not a pattern and just a new opportunity to change without blood this time.
This is the trailer of the Knowing, movie also about patterns.
How many times have you heard life is a circle? It is not just Elton John singing in the expensive plagiarism of Kimba: The White Lion (Tezuka, 1950), the infamous Lion King (Allers, Minkoff, 1994). It is quite obvious that things have this attribute. Circles can start anywhere but they will always end up where they started. Life can start at the end as in Benjamin Button (Fincher, 2008) or start in the middle as Dante Alighieri start describing his Divine Comedy (1308-1321 ). But they will end, as I said, just before they started. During the weekend I watched a couple of movies and both of them suggested questions that after more than 100 minutes were not answered. The movies in general were good, but there seems to be a trend nowadays where directors think that to have open finals is a symbol of making an artistic movie.
I agree that sometimes it is good not tell everything. To leave a blank space that the spectator can use to fill it out with his own thoughts and theories. But if the span between the two extremes of the circle is too wide, the circle will never be closed and we will only feel dissatisfied. The Knowing (Proyas, 2009) is a kind of prequel to the best picture of the director so far, Dark City (1998), but another entry and probably another film will be necessary to explain it.
On the other hand The International (Twinker, 2009) is an anti-climatic thriller of the new wave as Michael Clayton (Gilroy, 2007) and Syriana (Gaghan, 2005) which explain the problems but never propose a solution. I will talk further about them during the week.
In the meantime it is Monday and this video makes sense.
Yesterday I went to a Blockbuster which is very close to my home and bought a couple of movies. They were pre-watched movies and besides their correspondent price they had a 50% of extra discount. There is nothing like a cheap good movie!!. I bought Sunshine (2007) , a Since Fiction Horror movie directed by Danny Boyle (the same guy who won the Oscar on 2008 for Slum-dog millionaire). The premise of the movie consists in a bunch of people who want to turn on the sun. Their worst disaster is when their greenhouse is destroyed. Their enemy is a person who has a strong religion beliefs (believes which make him kill). Again to the topic, the movie works as horror movie only in the grade you accept its framework but I truly invite you to understand their characters in a crisis situation, as we are in a crisis situation in Mexico and in the world, and observe the attitudes which contribute to solve the problem and the ones leading to self destruction. It is still a Horror Futuristic Movie in debt with Alien (Scott, 1979), Event Horizon (Anderson, 1997) and the strange and lower rated Sphere (Levinson, 1998) with more focus on the people rather than in the science. You may want to give it a try sometime.
The quick and the dead is a popular name for novels, my only real reference though, is the movie directed by Sam Raimi in 1995 (yes, the same director of Spider-man). Looking in wikipedia I found interesting that the phrase has its origins in a misinterpretation of 1Peter 4:5. Where the word translated as quick in today’s English means alive or living so the right phrase should be “the living and the dead”. After this cultural introuduction I will establish my point: today’s news in Mexico are only two: Michael Jackson’s death and the elections result. Believe it or not the PRI is back and now Michael Jackson is a brilliant example for all humanity. In Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death if that is so Mr. Jackson is now free of sin, but what would be the wage of those who resuscitated the PRI? In a sense we all did, as we all, in a sense, killed Michael.
I will not repeat the famous legend of the Phoenix, at this point it looks so popular that it will not provide any prestige (Nolan, 2006 a really intriguing movie by the way)to this blog. But I will do a brief intent of serial reflexions about the new era of this blog.
1. If a friend as RIP is capable to find these lines within the immensity of the cyberspace, an update is imperative.
2. My main concern has always been to write interesting comments, nevertheless to have the purpose of write long, baroque, presumptuous discourses (here I go again) takes a long time.
3. In an attempt of creating something interesting and do not invest the whole morning on it I will keep it brief from now on.
So, while I am listening to Oasis with their neo-Beatles sound playing Stand by me (Be here now, 1997) I’m grateful for whoever wants to read these notes in this new stage (era sounds so pretentious). And it is only fair to thanks RIP whose nick name should be LIVE.
I agree this may not be the more suitable word for a Monday. It means mutually destructive.
From my perspective all destruction is internecine. Death and pain always work in both directions. When I think about this topic, there is a scene of The Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992) which always comes to my mind. In this part Eastwood says to a young gun man: “When you killed him, you took away from him all that he had and all what he was going to ever have”. They are looking to a cloudy sky in the preface of a storm. Their clothes are moving at the rhythm of the chill wind against their faces. It had been an easy target, however when the fledgling shoot him, something in the gun man died as well. All violence is internecine.
Talking about massive corpses, yesterday I went to see Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008). I could have chosen something else but the fact that some Mexicans are in the movie stirred my mind. They were there just for a few minutes but still made me think that someday Mexicans can make it in the Hollywood mainstream. One of these actors is Jesus Ochoa who is very talented and also has a tremendous humorous vein. In the picture, however he does not say a single word but he still looks funny. On the other hand, this movie de-007 completely the James Bond character. No more exotic cars with fantastic modifications, no more spectacular gadgets and no more glamour around the agent. Now, Mr. Bond is a regular intelligence employee who looks for the bad guys consolidating the trend we saw in Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006). Nevertheless, Campbell is an action movie director and kept alive some of the elements that made the British Agent famous. Forster is a serious movies director and had transformed the character into a “James Bourne” (Bourne Identity; Liman, 2002) without the power of the technological expertise and without the uncertainty of a “crazy” human lethal weapon. Forster achieve some descent action scenes from a realistic point of view however, it seems to miss the essence of Bond. He received the offer to direct one more movie of the saga and he was intelligent enough to gently decline it. Forster’s inveterate contribution is with movies as The Kite Runner (2007), Finding Neverland (2004) and Monster’s Ball (2001) not senseless action movies. To keep Bond and the director together it would definitely be an internecine act.
I do not doubt that Quantum of Solace will produce certain alacrity in the box office still, I missed the days when Bond, James Bond, drove European cars and drank martinis.
I would like to write that we are in internecine fracas against time but the truth is that Chronos is the king and we are just followers.
My English teacher was aware of how the most subtle combination generates the most profound impact. Not a lot of people know that is not the same to write “blue dog’s eyes” and “eyes of blue dog”. If not the meaning, the feeling that each representation evokes are different. This image extracted from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story has haunted me for years. I was not able to fully understand it until I saw my dog howling in my parents’ room. Its whole body was in the back yard and only his huge head was leaned out the window inside the house. I saw his eyes of despair and melancholy and then I understood what Marquez had written.
What I am trying to explain is that words have a life of their own, their own location in the puzzle of sentences, and even their own time. With this said, I need to confess that I have the necessity to learn more English words, therefore from now on, all the entries are going to be about a word that I need to memorize. I believe this is not going to stop me to write what I want but still I felt obliged to communicate it to my three readers (kisses mum!!!).
From words as a unit or as a universe a lot of references can be made. I will do two. The first one is a movie with Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. Bee Season (Scott McGehee, David Siegel; 2005) is a story of a little girl who finds love in words. His father, Gere, never paid her much attention until one day she decides to participate in the US National spelling contest (As a note for non US people: Spelling Bee is how the participants are named). Gere is a Jewish university professor that is also intrigued by words, and he starts teaching his daughter not only for the contest, but also how to interpret the kabbalah and some esoteric texts. This instruction is labyrinthine to the point, that some Jewish believe that the real name of God (not Jehovah or Yahweh) is hidden somewhere. And the one capable of discover that name, would be granted with immense wisdom. The little girl finds in words the way to unite her family, because family is also a word. However, she does not forget that word’s true value resides in the action or object which they represent. Bee Season is a decent film with decent acting, its main value resides in its portray of the power of words and a narration of a family that should be happy but it is not.
The second reference is about a survey elaborated in the framework of the 550 anniversary of the movable types print. A web site asked web surfers to suggest and vote for their favorite Spanish word. The number one word was Amor (love) followed by freedom, peace and life and then the first word that was selected because of the word itself was: Azahar. It means a small flower but its sound is just gorgeous. Words that come from Arabic language are fascinating in Spanish. Actually, the word I propose was Almohada (pillow) which has a similar sound but a much profound meaning. Of course it was not even in the top 25. To me Almohada is the place of our nightmares and dreams, where we lean our head to awaken our thoughts, where we make our decisions, where we share our tears, where we start many voyages, and where we catch a brand new day.
Words are much more that letters are things and thoughts and they also sound cute.
Reach each other soon!!!
Night of the living dead is a movie directed by the American director George A Romero in 1968. This film is about zombies. The fact that these living dead are all around a town eating human brains it is not important. The important part of the movie is that these active corpses were created by a satellite which crashed on earth polluting the soil with its radioactive fuel. In other words, Romero was saying in a profuse bloody way that technology; (specifically the one related to media) creates zombies. However this is not the subject of this article. What I’m trying to illustrate is my weekend. In fact, there are weekends that have to be forgotten.
Usually weekends are joy. Mondays are only bearable because of the distant hope of two days of solace distraction. Fridays; due to the proximity of the holly Saturday; feel like an evanescent span, easily lost in our memories thanks to the burgeon of an imminent happiness.
For normal people weekends are like that, for me it has been almost a habit to have all kinds of silly troubles and spoil my peaceful time of the week.
So imagine me, distressed by a convoluted couple of days facing a cold Monday with the type of surprises that only a Monday can bring. Red projects, angry boss, lost data. I should have looked pathetic, like a Christmas render climbing trees in Jamaica. I was the cornucopia of the nonsense.
Of course, a fundamental part of the Mexican roots is drama. In days like these the smallest setback becomes a tragedy of cosmic proportions. In moments like these Jose Alfredo Jimenez songs are the unique map or the world and our existence.
The only possible consolation to this Mexican tragedy, is the weekend still so far away. But as we Mexicans say: hope does not die until the last moment. Or so we believe.
PaulNewman acaba de fallecer la semana pasada. He de confesar que no conozco bien al hombre. Lo que he leído me indica que durante su larguísima carrera fue una de las pocas personas que no se dejó mover en demasía por su gran fama. Era una persona de pasiones y sobre todo pensante. Utilizando su prestigio fue co-fundador de una compañía de aderezos (la que usa McDonalds en Estados Unidos) de la cual daba en caridad todas sus ganancias. Este es el tipo de acción que emprende un hombre a quien no le falta nada pero sabe que puede ayudar a otras personas y no solamente gastarse su riqueza (fama y dinero) en templos al egocentrismo.
Otra de sus pasiones eran los autos, durante varios años patrocino el equipo Penske (antes de que se llamara así) y él mismo corrió en varias carreras.
Su filantropía hace palidecer su carrera fílmica, la cual es brillante, sin embargo actores hay muchos, personas que donen más de 200 millones de dólares a causas dignas, no tantos.
Hay varias películas de su filmografía que sobresalen y son indispensables para conocer a este buen actor que por si fuera poco también fue galán. Gato sobre el tejado caliente (Caton a Hot TinRoof, Richard Brooks, 1958) fue el film que lo puso en el candelero a la tierna edad de 23 años, pero quizás la película que lo define más en esa época es El Audaz (TheHustler, , RobertRossen,1961) en la cual aparece como un jugador de billar. Una parábola interesante sobre el costo de hacer lo que se quiere. Mas tarde hará dos películas que se volverán su sello, ambas dirigidas por GeorgeRoy Hill, El golpe TheSting, 1973) y ButchCassidyandtheSundance Kid (1969). Con las cuales el galán y excelente actor quedará consagrado. Pues encarna en ambas a un hombre de experiencia, despreocupado e inteligente. La clase de hombre que lo ha hecho todo y encuentra un nuevo reto en la llegada de un compañero o protegido más joven que le infunde el ánimo que creía perdido.
Para mí, quizás, su película más reveladora es El tonto de nadie (Nobody’sFool, RobertBenton, 1994) en la cuál a sus 69 años da una actuación magistral en una cinta dónde se pone de manifiesto que las personas de la tercera edad tienen mucha valía para la sociedad y sus familias. Que sus necesidades son diferentes pero su importancia radica no solo en lo que han hecho sino en lo que todavía pueden hacer.
Paradójicamente su único Oscar por actuación lo ganó como actor secundario por la película El color del dinero (The Color of Money, MartinScorsese, 1984) En la cual hace una especie de reinterpretación de su personaje de El Audaz, años más tarde. Ahora enseñando al joven Tome Cruise quien por lo visto no
aprendió muchos de sus consejos. El asunto es que este título define de cierta forma su vida. El color del dinero puede ser ese verde oscuro y ominoso que se esfuma en banalidades o bien puede ser ese verde claro y fresco que significa vida. Newman supo a tiempo, que era el segundo tono el que valía la pena. Tocó a muchas personas dentro y fuera de los filmes y en los títulos finales de muchas producciones (de vida y de celuloide) será un protagonista inamovible o un actor de soporte (de reparto en el español más correcto) fundamental. Ya sea para un niño enfermo que va a un campamento de verano o para un amante del séptimo arte, hace una semana se marchó, temporalmente, un hombre al que se echará de menos.
El Impostor es un cuento escrito por Philip K Dick en 1953. Se basa en una pregunta universal ¿Quién soy? En esta historia la pregunta se hace incluso al nivel más esencial. El impostor del título, está seguro de que no es un impostor. Para mi esa es una idea estrujante, más allá de la narrativa de Dick, preguntarte si eres quien realmente crees que eres es un cuestionamiento digno de todos nuestro empeños.
En el cuento Dick añade bastante de la paranoia de la Guerra Fría, ese temor de que la URSSS conquistaría EU o viceversa, ese miedo de que cualquiera podría estar de cualquier lado. Pero el autor lo lleva más allá porque Olham tendrá que iniciar un viaje de auto descubrimiento, más que un viaje una persecución. A las prisas tendrá que descifrar si es él quien realmente cree que es y más que eso tiene que poder demostrarlo a los demás.
Me parece que en estos tiempos esa persecución sigue siendo válida. La rutina nos persigue todos los días y al llegar a casa tenemos que encontrar esa razón para estar en el trabajo al día siguiente. El mismo trabajo puede ser el motivo. Nuestra labor incesante, el ser parte de un inmenso engranaje productivo puede ser la razón por la cual somos lo que somos. Como lo es Olham quien ha trabajado por 10 años todos los días en el mismo proyecto cuya finalidad es la supervivencia de la tierra. Pero quizás también como Olham nuestra razón de ser es ese espacio dónde nos podamos desembarazar del ámbito laboral y descansar, y ver por la ventana y caminar entre los árboles, que de hecho es la primera imagen que tenemos de él, como alguien a quien le gustaría descansar. Ese, supongo, es la primera parte del predicamento del Impostor, la cual es resuelta con obnubilada certeza. Oldham está convencido que es Oldham. Tú, lector, lectora ¿estas seguro que eres tu? Excelente. Ahora viene el mayor reto de toda la historia. ¿Cómo se lo demuestras a los demás? Lo primero que se le viene a la mente al protagonista es tratar de demostrarlo con sus recuerdos. Los cuales por supuesto, pueden ser robados. Después trata de hacerlo mirando a los ojos de quienes conoce, los ojos pueden ser duplicados. Entonces Oldham se interna en un bosque oscuro mientras lo persiguen. El amanecer le trae su repuesta.
Todos tenemos que adentrarnos a ese bosque oscuro cuando las personas que nos conocen nos dicen que no nos conocen más. Estamos seguros de que seguimos siendo los mismos pero ¿lo somos? ¿Nos dejaremos alcanzar por sus comentarios en la noche? ¿Lograremos llegar al amanecer de nuestra verdadera identidad?
Philip K Dick, tan inquietante como era, nos propone esas preguntas en una historia breve y precisa, esas preguntas tan actuales como lo eran hace 50 años. ¿Quiénes somos? ¿Somos quien creemos ser?
Hoy es un día tan bueno como cualquiera para pensarlo
Nos estamos leyendo
Comentario: La película El Impostor (Impostor, Gary Fleder 2001), para mi una de las mejores adaptaciones al cine de una historia de Philip K. Dick. Quizás menos profunda pero más dinámica. Se las recomiendo para un buen sábado por la tarde. Claro que el responsable de su valía es David Twohy (The Arrival,1996), más que el mismo director.
Posted by Manuel Gaitan 
Posted by Manuel Gaitan 
Posted by Manuel Gaitan 
