Up, close and personal

This one goes in spanish because there are some gags that only local readers will catch. Sorry guys, I'll switch back to english next time :)

Pongamonos en situacion ... Tarde de rol en casa, 5 amiguetes, dos botellas de refrescos, 12 bolsas de patatas fritas y un puñao de dados de esos con muchas caras.

-¿Hoy a que jugamos?
-¡Al 5 anillos!
-No, eso ya fue la semana pasada
-Pues al Cthulhu
-No, que no encaja con mi proximo bestseller
-Pues al ... Indiana Jones
-Mira, eso puede valer. ¿Que personaje quieres ser?
-Voy a ser un PJ pedante, magnifico en su area, cargado de desden para la gente que lo rodea y, en general, encantado de conocerse a si mismo.
-Vale, pos ereeeeees ... una experta hacker millonaria y despreciativa.
-Puedo ser un personaje masculino?
-Como quieras, total, lo voy a tratar igual ...
-Bueno, pues el resto seran mis amigos, que, por alguna razon, me adoran y admiran y son muy buenos en lo suyo, aunque no tanto como yo.
-Vale, mientras tengan algun rasgo folklorico-festivo que ayude en la partida.
-Ok, esta es monja, este marine colonial y el otro sobrino de Fu-man-chu y cinturon celeste de Jeet Kung Do
-Si, puede funcionar. Vamos a ver, como te motivo para salir de tu acomodada vida. Tienes algun pariente a que salvarle el pellejo? Te aburres mortalmente? Tienes dificultades economicas?
-Si, vale, lo primero me vale
-Pues recibes un mensaje muy angustiado de tu primo segundo, escrito en una clave rarisima que nadie puede leer, salvo tu, cuando saques un critico en entender claves ...
-Critico!
-Pues eso, que te pide que lo ayudes, que lo ha secuestrado un nucleo de antiguos pobladores de la Isla de Pascua que adoran al dios de Mauna Loa -uno de los volcanes más activos en las Islas Hawaianas y uno de los cinco volcanes que forman la isla de Hawai junto con los volcanes Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Kohala y Kilauea-
-Eso no tiene sentido!
-Tu dame diez minutos con la wikipedia y veras como consido encontrarlo
-Bueeeenoooo, pues me pido 7 dias de asuntos propios, liquido mis bonos del tesoro, le doy cerrojazo a casa, regalo el gato y me saco una tarjeta de millas de Iberia, que pa mi que voy a viajar.
-No se te olvide llevarte a tus amigos, que tu no tienes las habilidades de Buscar libros, Arqueologia Aplicada y Caza de Mariposas a topos
-¿Caza de Mariposas a topoooos?
-(Ya veras, ya, cuando descubras que Ghengis Khan tatuo media solucion del enigma en las alas de un morpho (mariposa tropical iridiscente de la familia Nymphalidae que es nativa de Centro y Sudamérica.)

Pues esto, que parece una partida de rol de lo mas normalita, no es mas que el comienzo ... de otro libro de Matilde Asensi!!!
No es broma, hasta ahora me he leido El Ultimo Caton, el Origen Perdido y ahora estoy con Todo Bajo el Cielo y casi convencida de que esta mujer escribe asi. No me quejo, que me gustan sus libros mucho mas que los del pazguato del Dan Brown que cuando se le habla de documentacion, saca el carnet de identidad. Quitando que todos sus protagonistas me caen mal, sus libros son bastante entretenidos y estan mas que bien documentados (a veces quizas en exceso, pero mas vale que sobre ...). Vamos, que son como el libro gordo de Petete en version novela historica. Eso si, sus personajes tienen los mejores criticos en dados que nunca he visto en partida alguna. ¡¡Vaya partidas les salen!!

Me vuelvo con Todo bajo el cielo :D:D

Okidoki, I've been to the cinema these last months and I can't say I'm much impressed.
Let's start with the good staff: Batman. This film is amazing and Nowlan is superb; he seems to be the only director that actually has read the comics before
shooting the film. There are these references to classics like Year One, Full Circle, Killing Joke ... And most characters, we are familiar with, even though I
don't know why they renamed Montoya as Ramirez. The cartoon shorts prior to the film were also a good idea to get into the story smoothly and, then, the Joker was
great. I was not much into Ledger -and, let's acknowledge, I always had a thing for Bale and I did not like all merit going to other guy- but he did a perfect, scary Joker and even gave the Clown the black humour twist that was needed at the hospital scene. The script was seamless and the story smooth. Loved it.



Wall-e was also (not surprisingly) pleasant. Along with the perfect technical quality Pixar has us used to, the story was sweet, it has some hilarious moments and characters were very solid. You progressively grow up to like them and care about them, which is something that can not be said for most of the films I watched this summer. All in all, I liked Nemo better, but I'm thinking about building a Wall-e for myself :)



And, now, everything else:

Hancock, for example. What was it all about? Was there really a script int that movie? Did not look like, I'd say. Despite the quite obvious revelation about the two main characters (I'm trying not to be spoily, but never mind, you'll guess it after five minutes), the rest was like "look how nice are my FX", something quite usual lately. Have all good writers gone to TV recently? Ok, Will Smith looks good, specially with the rowdy aspect, but that's basically it (and Theron for you, guys).



Kung Fu Panda was another dissappointment, mostly because I did not like any character. If not for Pixar, we would be back to the time when cartoons were only for kids and, hence, The film goes like most in this genre: you get the main character, who knows nothing at all about kung fu, has no training and no physique to fight, and, just for pure chance, turn him into a hero foreseen in an old prophecy, so he has to grow into his shoes. Sometimes, the way of telling the story makes it big. This is not one of those. After this film, I replayed Disney's Mulan in the DVD and, once more, loved every minute. I think I'll stick just to Pixar and DC cartoons until they remember how to shoot stories without real actors.



Mamma mia was marginally enjoyable. Meryl Streep was not much my idea of the main character, but the three guys were okay and music was fun. I rather preferred the theater version, though, but it was the only movie they played at the beach were I was not constantly checking my watch to go back home.



The biggest dissappointment was Hellboy and the Golden Army, though. As a fan of Hellboy from the beginning, one can only wonder how Mignola let them mess with continuity like that. Money, most likely, as sad as it sounds. Why on earth would he have the (disfunctional) family composed by Abe, Liz, Kate and the rest loose meaning just to have a (quite poor) romance on the screen? It was bad in the first movie, in this one is unacceptable. Plus Hellboy looks like a rebel (and rather spoiled) teenager rather than a grown-up. Responsability goes straight away to Liz, as Abe seems to be quite lost and Manning looks bipolar or something . Since when has Liz been the poster girl for stability?? As many friends told me, the film looks pretty, specially when there are fairies on screen, but it would have been better without the Bureau, as they all are out of character. This is a Del Toro movie where they stuffed Hellboy by sheer force, and that's the best I can say about it.



And finally, on DVD, there are these two flicks one can live without:

The seed of evil: a thai movie about a mythical monster created by ill employed dark arts. The monster is not that scary, but the first part of the film, on kid prostitution in Bangkok, is really creepy. And, sadly, quite realistic.



Tideland, by Terry Gilliam, is a totally different thingy. Author movies might work sometimes for me, but this one was disturbing and disgusting. It focus on the depressing live of a ten year kid, only daughter of a couple of junkies (Jeff Bridges in the rol of daddy). After the mom (Jenniffer Tilly) dies from overdose, Bridges and the kid move to a very isolated area in the country side, where his mother had an old farm house. There, of course, Bridges gets overdosed as well and the kid is left alone to her fantasies. As usual with Giliam, a descent into madness from an unusual point of view. Nothing I'd advise someone with my movie tastes to watch, I warn you.



On the other hand, Galactica Razor was quite cool. We get the whole cast shortly after the Pegasus goes under Adama control. If you have not seen season 2, I'd advise you not to read any further, mind you. When Cain is murdered by poor, tortured Number-6, her crew is adrift, now under command of young Lee, who has not a strong position after command has been granted by his dad. Lee makes a smart move and selects one of Cain's trusted officers as second in command. The problem is that the woman is mentally damaged after obeying the commands that led to a civil massacre in Scylla when Cain wanted the FTL motors stolen from the ships. After a small crew gets lost while scouting around and Adama recalls that Cylons were experimenting with vivisection back during the first war, rescue will put this woman and Starbuck into an uneasy alliance. Plus we get to learn why Cain was always so pissed during the two Pegasus episodes.



Next time, we go to TV series! Cheers from the Caribe!!

Hey, readers (if there are any :D)
I've been grounded in Granada this last month so I pretty much just read the four Song of Fire and Ice books by G.R.R. Martin that I bought from Amazon in July, and, hey, were they good! True to myself, I rather liked second line characters like Asha Greyjoy or the Dorne Viper better that the main ones. My fav among the main cast, though, were to be expected (Arya and Brienne, mostly) except for one: Jaime, which I grew pretty fond of as soon as the second book. Compulsive as I am, I decided to make my own film cast for the books and wasted enough time to draw quite a few of them, which I'm posting in my art blog. I'm leaving some here, though, so you can try to guess who are they based on :)

Dany Targaryen (dragons are a giveaway :D)


The pretty pair, aka Jaime and Cersei


"Brave but not brain" Ned Stark


"Bring on the party" King Robert


Survivalist Arya Stark



Just a bit of guessing on book five ahead so read no more if you have not read a Feast of Crows to keep spoilers a-bay
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It is obvious (at least from my POV) that Jon is the son of Rhaegar and (willing) Lyanna Stark, so he'd be one of the dragons heads along with Dany. But ... who's the third? Is there any suspicious unclaimed bastard in the book who might have survived the War with his/her Targaryen blood safely inside his/her body? Could be he/she is hidden in plain view, just like the Sarella/Alleras girl, but I can't find! Theories welcomed, friends!