The unfaithful wife

Saw this really interesting French movie that was remade some years back as "Unfaithful" with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. But this version is so much better. First, the character of the husband is a kind of a wimpy guy something that makes his violent act muclh more surprising. The character of the lover is different too since he is a very likable guy, which makes our feelings for him to be very mixed. And if you thought the ending is "Unfaithful" was ambiguous, the ending here is positively obscure. It is one of the most open endings I have seen in a movie.

Woody Allen quote

To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love, but then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer, to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love, to be happy then is to suffer but suffering makes one unhappy, therefore to be unhappy one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down.

soon!!!!!

My first big trip in a long, long time begins soon. I am looking forward to it. Went to Borders and bought some books and have been searching the Internet for tours, tips etc.
I even e-mailed a friend from my childhood who I haven't seen in 30 years who lives there. Could make for a really interesting reunion.

more Chabrol movies

More obscure movies. I saw two this week. Both by French director Claude Chabrol. "Ten Day's Wonder" is a typical early 1970'sinternational production starring Orson Welles, Anthony Perkins and Marlene Jobert. It's a murder mystery with a pretty cool twist ending. The other "Les Biches" about a love triangle that leads to murder. Both movies are truly eerie and moody. Nothing much happens. But the suspense consists in thinking that something WILL happen.

staircase

I saw this strange piece of urban architecture the other day. Reminded me of how one feels some days.

time passages

One of the most interesting and sad things about growing older is seeing places that you used to know disappear. The old movie theater. The shop around the corner where one used to buy baseball cards. One day someone decides to create a mall, an apartment building and those places from yesteryear are gone. This post is about a house that will soon be destroyed. A place where I spent many wonderful, wild hours during my teenage years. The place where I had my first beer. It was the perfect place for a party thanks to the gorgeous terrace. Since the house was owned by a shipping executive, the stairs from the second to the third floor were similar to those used to enter cruise ships. And the third floor had a maritime quality to it.

I also remember that this was place that I used to visit to listen to the latest music since my friend who lived there was always the first with the new albums. I remember listening to Jim Croce, ELO and many others.

Once my friends's family sold the house I used to look at it and reminisce about it.
That was until two years ago when a good friend moved there for a few months. It was a thrill to see the old house again. She had a party there and I was able to once again have a beer in the old third floor.

But now, the house is going to be destroyed to make way for an office building. What you see in the photo will no longer exist in a month or so. Gone. Just like that.
Damn.

Busy

I've been really busy at work. So much work and stress that I haven't been writing new things here. Hopefully this will change over the weekend once I get more relaxed and in the mood for writing. I have been planning my upcoming vacation and I am really looking forward to it. I need a few days to get away and see new things. For the first time, I am taking my laptop with me in order to create a kind of travel diary that I will post here. I think it will be a nice experiment in writing. Anyway. I need to get another cup of coffee.

more Steven Wright quotes

Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.

I bought some batteries, but they weren't included.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it.

I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out.

It doesn't make a difference what temperature a room is, it's always room temperature.

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died.

Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates... When I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, 'Do I know you?'

soon

In a few days I will be here. Can't wait to be there.

Steven Wright quotes

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

Someone sent me a postcard picture of the earth.
On the back it said, "Wish you were here."

Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country.

I used to work in a fire hydrant factory.
You couldn't park anywhere near the place.

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it.

Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time.

What's another word for Thesaurus?

You can't have everything. Where would you put it?

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths.

If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?

reconsidering John

I'm a huge Beatles fan. And I listen to their music a lot. But something interesting is happening. I am listening less and less to John Lennon songs and more and more to McCartney and Harrison songs. To my ears Lennon's music is becoming more distant, more corny, less interesting, very pretentious. Whereas "Band on the Run" and "All Things Must Pass" still sound fresh, "Imagine" sounds more and more like pure mush. In a way, it seems to me that Lennon's music is very overrated due perhaps to his tragic death.

Of course, it would have been very interesting to see what he would have written in the past 25 years. And it would have been mindblowing to see if he would have renewed his songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney.

But all we have is those 10 years of solo work. And quite frankly, it's not as amazing as legend will lead you to believe.

small mysteries

I've been watching movies by an interesting French director called Claude Chabrol. He's considered a kind of "French Hitchcock", although I guess Henri-Georges Clouzot was called that too. He makes really interesting little suspense films that are short on action but full of interesting characters. Sometimes the suspense is more psychological than anything. And I guess some people may find his movies boring but I find them very interesting. And in this era of overblown crap like "Firewall" and those Ashley Judd preposterous thrillers, it is kind of refreshing to see small movies about regular people facing suspenseful situations.

where I should be today

But I won't. Because I work at the only advertising agency in Puerto Rico working today.

I love my digital camera

I read somewhere that if you take a walk with your camera at any given time you will find things that make cool photos. And well, it works. Here is a cool one. God knows what the hell this is.

let's smoke and watch a movie

The other day people were talking about the new smoking law in Puerto Rico. And I began recalling the days when people smoked everywhere. I remember especially at movie theaters. In fact, they had cigarette selling machines at the lobby! And in the back of the theater they had a special area for smokers. There was a glass so that smokers could see the movie while they had their cancer inducing break. This photo is from the old Puerto Rico theater and you can see the glass at the back of the auditorium.

movie websites I like

There are some amzing websites on the net about movies.

My favorites are

www.imdb.com (everything you want to know about any movie or actor)

www.metacritic.com and www.rottentomatoes.com (a compilation of movie reviews)

www.eccentric-cinema.com (a website about the weirdest movies in the world)

www.videowatchdog.com (amazing site about cult movies)

www. flickhead.blogspot.com (another site for off the wall movies)

"Trinity" movies and the art of fooling people

During the early 1970's Puerto Rico became flooded with an avalanche of silly Italian westerns: the Trinity movies. These movies were parodies of the Clint Eastwood-Sergio Leone westerns and featured all kind of slaptick situations. I remember loving them as a kid. But unfortunately, they are the sort of films that when seeing as an adult, are
a huge letdown. They are silly, boring and well...stupid.

The Trinity movies featured Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, but local movie theaters would rip people off by showing "fake" Trinity movies such as "The Cousins of Trinity". People would go to see these movies and suddenly realize that neither Hill nor Spencer were in the movie. They would do the same thing with Bruce Lee movies with titles such as "The Clones of Bruce Lee" starring Bruce Li (get the sly name change?). These were the days long before E! and the Internet and theater owners could get away with fooling people like that.

Best film of the year

Last night I saw the final hour of this amazing movie "Best of Youth". Looking back I have to admit, all the critics were right, this is the best film of 2005. I have no idea whether it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. But if it wasn't it's an outrage. This is a gem. A truly wonderful movie. With dialogue and images I'll always remember. The kind of movie I will revisit again and again.

Movies are shit

Has anyboy noticed that it's been a long time since there has been a good movie in a regular movie theater (not Fine Arts). I used to love going to see movies, buy some popcorn and be entertained. But all movies in multiplexes are shit. 16 screens of crap. Garbage. Mierda. "The Pink Panther?", "Firewall", "Big Momma's House 2", "Date Movie".
Anything aimed at people over 16? No. Anything with the slightest intelligence to it? No. Anything interesting? No. No wonder everyone is staying home, watching DVD's or watching series on HBO. The movies are not for us anymore. Movies are background noise for 15 year old kids who ocassionally watch the screen when they are tired of text messaging each other.

It's official

I have officially becomed a middle aged guy. Because I tried reading "Maxim" magazine yesterday and couldn't. I used to love this magazine and clones of it such as FHM. I used to think it was funny, clever, cool and everything else. In fact I tried to use some of the magazine's attitude when I was writing ads. Yestterday I found the magazine silly, dumb and not clever at all. Maybe the magazine got dumber but I'm afraid it's something else. I am not young anymore. Which means Esquire and Arena magazines are now the ones for me.