remember him?

The other at work we started singing his song..."yopururupu..." and of course "mi mami me dijo.." Amazing how one cartoon can get so into your mind that you never forget it.
And by the way, the name of the character whose song we can't get out of our head is Beaky Buzzard. There, you learned something new today.

reasons to rent a DVD tonight

On vacations

Tomorrow I am starting a short, four day vacation. I took some days off in March to go to San Francisco and Miami, but wanted to take a couple of more days off in summer.The rest I will be taking in October and November and then I will probably go to New York to visit a friend who will be studying there.

I'be always debated whether it is better to take a real long vacation ot to take a week here and a week there, or to take a couple of days here and a couple of days there. I guess unless you're going to Europe or somewhere far away, it is better to divide your vacation days. Sometimes four days off, provided you take a plane or stay at a hotel, is all you need to rest and enjoy.

The one thing I learned is never to take vacation and just stay in your home. They are a waste. You have to go somewhere. Doesn't have to be far away. Can be a beach place in the Island, but you need to see diferent things and see different people if you really want to feel refreshed and ready to face work again.

Anyway, today I will be really unproductive at work, I will be enjoying that wonderful feeling of drifting away while at work. It's really nice when you're at work, but your mind is already far away thinking about your vacation.

end of a sunny day

Beach Red

Yesterday was Memorial Day, the day we remember all those who fought and died in different wars. There was a war movie marathon on TCM, but I had seen most of those movies. So I bought a DVD at Borders of an obscure war movie from 1967 called "Beach Red" which I had read was very good, it was supposed to be a World War Two movie unlike any other. So I watched it last night. And it was really interesting. It's a very low budget movie, sometimes it looks kind of amateurish, but it has some good things. It gets into the character's minds so you know what they are thinking in the middle of war (family, sex, women). It also shows war from the point of view of the common Japanese soldier, showing they shared the same dreams and hopes. It was the first movie ever to do this.The ending is interestng, it tries to copy the famous butterfly scene from "All Quiet in the Western Front" and it works. All in all, a pretty interesting, offbeat movie that reminds you of the horror of being in the middle f battle and that no matter if you agree with the reasons for war, one must agree that the men and women who fight it, are courageous people indeed.

good question

When an evil masochist dies does he go to hell,
or would heaven be a better punishment?

Steven Wright

the greatest radio station in the world

If you're tired of local radio stations with their reggaeton and mindless pop, check out a radio station from Minnesota called "The Current". Imagine in the course of an hour, listening to Diana Krall, Cab Colloway, Pearl Jam, The Beatles and Celia Cruz. It's the most eclectic, coolest station. The DJ's are intelligent and fun. "The Morning Show" is a great way to start you day.

If you have the latest version of Itunes, check under Public stations. If not, Google "The Current mpr"...you'll be glad you did.

Beach Appreciation Day

The other day I was watching this family from the States having the time of their life at the beach near Hosteria del Mar. And the obvious thought came to me, these people worked hard all year, saved their money so they could come here and spend some days in the sun. And here I am, being able to enjoy this all year long. Which made me think that that this must have been one of the reasons why I din't stay in Minnesota or Philadelphia when I finished college and grad school. The beach. The warm weather.

Which brings me to another thought, how much I take all this for granted. You see me and you can tell I have not been to the beach in a long time. And I live one block from it. But I guess that's the way everyone acts.
Well, today, it will be Beach Appreciation Day for me. I have my chair ready, my SPF15 (after a certain age, you buy it, trust me) and my bottle of water.
Ready.

quote

"I have an inferiority complex.
But it's not a very good one."

Steven Wright

la doble tanda

Remember the double features at movie theaters? Going in at 2pm, leaving at 6pm. A complete afternoon at the movies for $2.00. I recall so may afternoons spent there.
At the Cortes, at the Riviera, the Grand, the Ambassador, the Rex. The unpredictability of the movies shown, an adventure movie with a drama. A comedy with a horror film. For some reason, the first movie shown was not the best one. You sat through it to get to the really good one. But then again, those were the days of "tandas corridas", when you could go in at any time and watch movies "mitad y mitad".

The double feature I always remember was one of "Yellow Submarine" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". A car that could fly, the Beatles...what more can a little kid hope for? Some time ago I bought both movies on DVD and watched them back to back. It was not the same as watching them so many years ago, but for a moment there, you know, maybe it was.

about long weekends

Finally. After two months, a long weekend. Last year we had about 11 long weekends, this year the place where I work gave us four. So we've come to appreciate and value each one. Which brings me to the point of this post. Why does everyone leaves crowded San Juan on long weekends to go to beaches elsewhere on the island? Your are leaving the crowded city for a crowded beach. The same traffic jams, the same looking for parking nightmare you face in the Metro Area is simply transferred to another location.

Anyway, I'm glad people do that. Because I stay back in San Juan and face a nice empty beach, I go to restaurants and there's no waiting, I go to Plaza and it's very relaxed.
There's almost no traffic and there's parking everywhere. I love long weekends in the city.

bet you didn't see this one coming

Wow. I saw this item today in the San Juan Star and couldn't believe it. Bananarama is back! Admit it, you sort of liked them. "Cruel Summer", the cover of "Na Na Na Na" and the sexy "Venus" video which must have been the most overplayed video in MTV history(not that I was complaining)
Well, they are back as a duo! One of them married a millionaire or something and skipped the whole comeback attempt.

So all of you who still listen to Phil Collins and Duran Duran and other 80's groups, your favorite girl group is back. A concert at the Choliseo can't be far behind.

By the way, I rather listen to Bananarama than to Phil Collins and Duran Duran, but that's the subject of a future "music I hate"post.

Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud

"We all want love, but when we find it, we pull back. It scares us."

I bought this DVD a while and had never gotten around to watching it, which I did last night. And am I glad I did! This is a wonderful, special movie about love unexpressed.
It is full of small moments, of things said and unsaid and of the strange ways of fate and love. It features some amazing performances by Emmanuelle Beart and Michel Serrrault. Their moments together are full of warmth but with an underlying tension. The scene where he sits by her bed while she sleeps is one of the most beautiful, tender movie moments I have seen in a long time. A true gem.

at ocean park

quote

"Ask nothing. Expect nothing. Accept everything."
Anthony Hopkins,when asked his philosophy of life.

George Carlin quotes

Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.

I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.

I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building. I felt better right away.

I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.

I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect.

Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that.

What does it mean to pre-board? Do you get on before you get on?

When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day," I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?

in praise of summer

It's close to that time of the year. When my relatives in Majorca, Spain take two months off to go to Porto Colom. They go to the beach, they go fishing, they go to the cafes and talk all afternoon. They enjoy every day. And they live to be 95 without major health problems.

Over here, we have lost that enjoyment of the summer. Sure, we get some weekends off in July and get into trafic jams and go to a crowded beach somewhere. We get drunk and believe we had a great time. But we don't really enjoy the slow pace and the magic of summer.

People search for the secret of longevity and peace in religion, Paolo Coehlo books, vitamins, herbs and crackpot diets. When maybe the secret of that bliss we all seek lies in taking two months off and simply watching the ocean.

when movies made you uncomfortable

I've noticed some things about movies today. They all want to reassure you things are fine. They all go soft and cuddly on you. No matter how mean they get, in the end they wimp out. They don't go out of their way to challenge you.

Travel back to the 1970's when movies wanted to make you uncomfortable. They wanted you to think. They wanted you to look away. They wanted you to know that sometimes the hero doesn't get the girl. The hero dies. The hero is a psycho. There are no heroes. The world is fucked up and anyone who tires to change that ends up doing more harm than good.

You see these movies( Taxi Driver, Chinatown) and you don't know where they're going. There an unpredictability to them that makes for great viewing.

There's nothing wrong with seeing predictable, feel good movies. I love them as well. In fact, my favorite film ever "Local Hero" is a life affirming movie. But sometimes it's good to see the other side, the queasy, creepy, uncomfortable one.

now this would have been a good movie

In 1965 the book "The Passover Plot" came along with a truly original story of Jesus. Forget "The Da Vinci Code" this book was the one to surely raise the ire of all religious groups.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the premise:(from Wikipedia)

According to this book Jesus had planned everything precisely: so that he would not be on the cross for more than a few hours before the Sabbath arrived when it was required that Jews be taken down; that one of his supporters, who was on hand, would give him some water to quench his thirst that was laced with a drug to make him unconscious; and that Joseph of Arimathea, a well-connected supporter, would get him released off the cross while still alive (but appearing dead) so that he could be nursed back to health in the tomb under the safety of the Sabbath.

The plan, however, went wrong on the cross when Jesus was unexpectedly and fatally wounded by the spearing in his side at the hands of one of the Roman guards. Those few supporters who were in on his plan, tried desperately to revive him, but to no avail, and he died during the next 24 hours in the tomb. His disappearance from the tomb is explained as partly innocent bungling by his supporters, partly fear of discovery at having disturbed the dead and partly fear of disclosing the elaborate plan.

The apostles, distraught at having lost their beloved spritual leader, guide and friend, truly believed it was he who subsequently appearanced to them, even when they did not recognize him.

After first laying out the storyline and outcome of Jesus's life in the first half of the book, along with supportive arguments, Schonfield devotes the second half of the book to a more in-depth exposé of the concepts and arguments used to support his conclusions. Schonfield also discusses how Jesus's original message and purpose may have become transformed during the century after his death.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm surprised this book has not resurfaced these days. Maybe it's because we live in such PC times that no publishing house would touch it. Wimps.

Miracle in the Andes

The first book I remember reading as a boy was Pier Paul Read's "Alive". I must have been 10 years old and I recall reading the book in record time. I was fascinated by the story of the rugby team whose plane crashed in The Andes and were forced to eat human flesh in order to survive. As a kid I saw the book as a mind blowing adventure while barely grasping the ethical dilemmas involved.

I read the book again maybe 20 years later and realized what an amazing story it really is. It's human survival at it most basic form. It became more than an adventure story. I tried to imagine how it must have been like for these men up there. And I imagined how one's life had to be changed forever by that experience. After all, once you have gone through something like that, what problem in your everyday life could ever affect you? In fact there are so many layers and philosophical aspects to the story that they impossible to sum up in a few paragraphs.

Now 30 years after "Alive" one of the survivors Nando Parrado tells his story. I can't wait to get the book. I was reading a review and it says that whereas "Alive" simply told what happened, "Miracle in the Andes" tells us what was going on in the minds of these young men as they were going through the ordeal. And the book also covers the aftermath of the event. How everyone's life was changed.

I want to get this book.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nando Parrado, interestingly enough, became an advertising man, a Creative
Director, I think. Can you imagine telling him the world is going to end if a copy is not on time?