Up, close and personal

¿No querías SOPA ...?

2012-01-19T05:19:00.000-08:00

Pues toma tres tazas, o eso es lo que a mí me decían en casa. Por falta de tiempo, no suelo actualizar mucho este blog (llegué a la conclusión de que tardo menos subiendo un dibujo diario al otro que escribiendo parrafadas), pero hay cosas que claman al Cielo. La última, por así decirlo, es la más que polémica ley norteamericana SOPA (y su amiga la Pepa, digo la PIPA), que Quino narra magistralmente en esta infografía.

A efectos de entendernos, la idea es el control estatal sobre lo que se publica o no en Internet a efectos de paliar la piratería, pero su aplicación práctica permite que cualquiera -con su voto y el de su primo- se te pueda colar en un blog y cerrártelo sin más explicaciones bajo excusas tan peregrinas como que el tipo de letra Times New Roman le pertenece a Julio Cesar. Por supuesto, no paran de repetirnos que eso sólo afectará a los piratas y delincuentes, pero, la verdad, a mi me suena a cuento, como en su momento las supuestas armas de destrucción masiva que justificaron la ~~invasión y robo de petroleo~~ liberación y democratización de Irak en su momento. ¿Y a qué nos recuerda en España? A la infame ley Sinde, por supuesto. En un país donde la justicia tarda en media un par de años en contestar (a favor del gobierno, por supuesto) casos tan flagrantes como la vergonzosa huelga masiva de controladores del puente de diciembre del 2010, parece ser que darle finiquito al blog de un pobre hijo de vecino se puede hacer sobre la marcha bajo el supuesto de que igual en un par de añitos deciden que es un delincuente. Y, digo yo, bajo el supuesto de que hay corrupción a sacos en el gobierno -sea del partido que sea-, ¿no podríamos también preventivamente cortarles el acceso a sus cuentas bancarias, colarnos en sus casas a ver si las cortinas han pasado de ser de IKEA a Dolce Gabana o incautarles el Mercedes por si acaso al final resulta que nos están robando? Ah, no, eso es un caso completamente distinto, porque, al parecer, según nuestro flamante ministro de ¿cultura?, el que ofrece pirateo es equivalente a un narcotraficante y los que potencialmente se benefician de ello, a drogadictos tirados. Y es que hay que saber cuando morderse la lengua, señores, por no publicar metáforas tan desacertadas como que los políticos españoles (y, al igual que ellos, omito el "algunos") son como las p*tas, ya que cobran por j*der al pueblo. Desacertadas porque al menos ellas intentan dejar al cliente satisfecho, con lo que me parece una profesión mucho más respetable.

Y es que, señores, al poco de su investidura, nuestro nuevo presidente no sólo se pasó por el forro sus afirmaciones de que no subiría los impuestos (completamente imposible de creer, por otra parte, pero que alguien con más cabeza -u honestidad- habría rematado con un "si es que los números que nos pasa el gobierto saliente -presentados ante notario- son ciertos"), sino que aprovechando la resaca navideña, por las escuadra y con alevosía, nos ha colado la ley Sinde por toda la cara. Y es que es muy bonito abstenerse de apoyar una ley impopular cuando todavía tienen que votarnos los "drogadictos" esos que se bajan las cosas de Internet, pero una vez tenemos la sartén por el mango, bajada de pantalones. De acuerdo a las malas lenguas frente a las presiones norteamericanas como ocurrió, fijese usted, con la guerra de Iraq. El resultado: en USA el apagón de ayer de Internet ha hecho que muchos políticos se posicionen en contra de SOPA y, como poco, la ha retrasado un tiempo, mientras que aquí ya tenemos ley Sinde .. para rato. Eso si, parece que al final lo del canon era ilegal. Y me pregunto yo, ¿devolverá la SGAE el dinero recaudado ilegalmente cuando me compraba discos duros para el curro o DVDs para guardar copias de mi tesis?. Sería la primera vez en este país que alguien devolviera algo, me temo.

Y, por aportar algo positivo, sugerirle al gobierno que en vez de luchar contra la piratería mediante censura, igual les luciría más el pelo controlando los ABUSIVOS precios de cine, libros, discos, películas y videojuegos en España, donde teniendo de los salarios más bajos de Europa pagamos la cultura a los precios más elevados. Yo no necesito bajarme juegos de XBox de Internet, me los compro de Amazon UK a una quinta parte de su precio en España y me los dejan en el buzón sin gastos de envío ...

A few lines for Japan

2011-03-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

I think that the overwhelming amount of information that all of us have available these days sometimes makes us skip over situations what should have us holding our breath. I'm not saying we are not aware of international news, only we give then just a glimpse of attention and move to other issues. Take, for example, victims in suicidal terrorist attacks in Irak. In the end, we get used to them and they become numbers. Today we are waiting for the earthquake 8 Richter replica that hit Japan a few days ago and hoping for the best, because we are not sure Japan can take it anymore. I'm compiling data and videos today.

Even though Japan is probably the most organized country I've ever been to, we can see it in numbers. The Japan earthquake was a 9 Richter one: the Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic one, meaning that each point is 10 times higher than the previous one in terms of shaking amplitude.Earthquakes between 9-10 devastate several thousand miles across. A 10.0+ has never been recorded and would probably provoke planetwide devastation. This quake is the sixth largest of all time and the worst to hit Japan.

Fortunately, Japan is well prepared against earthquakes and buildings hold quite well. They do that by swinging with the waves rather than trying to resist them. During the last one, they moved like bamboo in a storm.

The worst was yet to come, though. Ships, trains, buildings and cars were swept away as monster 33ft waves smashed into the port city of Sendai. A boat carrying 80 dock workers was swept away in the 500mph tidal wave while a cruise ship with 100 passengers is also thought to be missing. Officials have lost contact with four trains which are feared to have been engulfed by the tsunami along the coastline. They include two of the famous bullet trains, one of them with 400 passengers. Bridges were swept away and a packed hotel in the city collapsed. While these waves were far from the highest tsunami ever (1720 feet tall in Lituya Bay, Alaska), they penetrated far into the land (up to 5km) and reached as high as 7.3 meters spots.

And, if this was not enough, Japan depends on nuclear power, and Fukushima is close to meltdown. There have been explosions in the nuclear plant and most people think it is a goner. Reactor 1 has no refrigeration and there has already been some partial fusion. Reactors 2, 5 and 6 are also on catastrophic temperature levels. The International Atomic Agency said radioactive material is leaking 'directly' into the air from the stricken plant at a rate of 400 millisieverts per hour. Anyone exposed to over 100 millisieverts a year risks cancer. Population in a 30 km area haa been evacuated. Authorities advise not to go out of home these days.

People are referring to Chernobyl in comparison, at it was equivalent to 10 Hiroshima detonations. A single one wiped out the city in 1945 (over 100000 dead).

As direct results, Japan has shifted 13 feet to the east (4 meters). At the moment, there are already 3373 dead and 7588 missing persons (in the 11S terrorist attack there were 2973 dead and 24 missing persons). There are continuous power shortages on the country and people are massively storing food and fuel. Noone is really sure about the radiation propagation, even though the government states it is safe at the moment. Anyway, radiation in Tokyo is 10 times higher than usual. Nikkei index has sunk and there have been several government rescues to refloat it. There are still 2 tsunami alerts and 14 replica alerts on.

This was a report status from a few days ago:
Status summary:

(1) Tokyo is OK. Transportation is disrupted but recovering.

(2) Entire coastal zone of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and a part of Ibaraki are basically eliminated. Coastal zone means about 2-3 Km within the original shoreline.
Some places damage extend 10km inward. Tsunami was about 10m high. Geography seems to have changed. In many places, coastal zone ground subsided and underwater.

Center of Sendai seems OK, although there are a few fire and damages. Most serious damages are cities in coastal zone.

All infrastructure is down. No transportation, no electricity, no water.

(3) Self-defense forces are all mobilized. US Navy battle group is heading to the region. this includes USS Ronald Reagan, also US Marine Corp's amphibious assault vehicle, etc. USAID will be deployed as well.

(4) Radiation leakage in FUKUSHIMA #1 power plants. and cooling system is also lost now for Fukushima #2. Leakage is at low level. Self-defense ground force (ARMY) special unit for nuclear incidents arrived on-site to take measures. The most recent report indicate Core Melt Down starting in #1 plant.

(5) A new earthquake in Nagano-Niigata area in early morning hours. Almost a same scale as CHUUETSU earth quake. land slide and damages has been confirmed.

(6) There will be power shortage in Tokyo later today. Electric supply is 10-20% short of demands now as many power plants are down now and will not recover anytime soon.
There will be Rolling Blackout throughout east Japan including Tokyo.

(7) Death toll will raise up as situation unfolds. some cities are simply gone. those numbers are not counted yet.

(8) Despite these, things are in order in affected regions. People helping each other and supply of food and water have already started. While people are worried and shocked, there is no report of riot, chaos, or any unrest. We do not expect unrest or any disorder to take place.

(9) the fault line extending over 600Km have collapsed. M8.9 that is 5th largest in the recorded history of mankind. Plates moved about 4m horizontally and 70cm vertically by GPs based estimate. because of this, there are a series of earth quake in Nagano-niigata area to compensate for plate pressure change. At this moment, most of aftershock is taking place Niigata-nagano area, rather than the original epicenter.

regards,

****

Anyone who wants to help can probably find how to channel their support at their local bank or through reliable institutions. Finally, here is a request from a japanese girl living abroad that you might find easy to grant.

The truth about cats and dogs: Sinde vs Internet

2011-02-14T03:09:00.000-08:00

Imagen tomada del magnífico blog de Raul Salazar Un respeto a las canas. ¡No os lo perdais!

Two weeks ago, I bought 5 Xbox games (NEW) from Amazon UK. 3 of them are already here. All in all, I paid for the whole 5 (post costs included) what I would have paid for 1 game and a half in Spain. I usually buy 2 to 5 books every couple of months from Book Depository (no post costs). I usually pay half of what I would have paid here. Just an example: any Discworld novel (TP) is around 7 EUR. Just ask in your bookstore for the same. And don't get me started with hard cover books! I used to go to the movies twice a week when I was studying at the university. I watched everything I found remotely interesting then. Of course, now the ticket is around 7 EUR (more if you go IMAX), so I only go to see flicks I'm really interested into, that have lots of FX and just if I'm going with friends. I also used to buy a couple of CDs each month, and they were around 6-8 EUR in Madrid (NEW). A few years later they magically became 20-24 EUR each. Needless to say, I don't do that anymore. I do buy music at concerts or from people playing in the streets, though. And, guess what? they are still 6-8 EUR from them.

Now, on the other side, I work as an engineer, i.e. I have to use electronic equipment, PCs, etc on a daily basis. Each time I use an USB, HDD, CD, DVD, etc, I'm paying a tax to the so-called society of "creators" just to do my job. Even printers have this tax and I'm sure they are not charging paper just because they still can't. Why? Because I COULD BE using that stuff to store multimedia copyrighted content. Not because I HAVE, but because I COULD BE. I don't know if you people know about the base of our law system: presumption of innocence. Well, the SS (Sinde and SGAE) are assuming just the contrary, that everybody is guilty unless proven so. Not only they charge us for this, but they also think they are morally so above us that they feel they can insult every person using the Internet (Internauts as a whole) by calling us thieves. I've got some serious concerns about this. First, why are we thieves if we are paying in advance for anything we are (or are not) downloading? Not to mention that we have probably the most expensive Internet service in the whole world (thanks, Internet providers, speaking of thieves ...). Second, why does this tax go to spanish "creators" (most of them haven't created anything for years, just take the SGAE president, for example) if it is a proven fact that most downloaded material is american or english? And what is a spanish creator? Someone who speaks spanish? Because some very loud "creators" don't even pay taxes in Spain -like Alejandro Sanz-.
In fact, why pay for spanish movies twice, if most of the costs of producing it are taken from our taxes? A few exceptions aside, I DON'T like spanish movies, so can I just NOT pay for them to be produced? Third, why has a person with clear and proven ties to SGAE been chosen for the ministry of culture? There is a thing called incompatibility in laws that easily leads to corruption (prevaricación, para los hispano-parlantes). In fact, what do we know about culture since Sinde is head of the ministry except for SGAE and illegal downloads? Is there no culture in Spain at all except that?

My guess is that the current government owed it big to SGAE for support in the elections and gave them whatever they wanted, even a ministry to one of their members so they can do what they want. Do you know, for example, that if the tax they impose on electronical equipment and such is not over a threshold they have freedom to get the rest of the money from somewhere else? And if any of you is thinking, "ok, I don't use electronic equipment", don't forget that each time you have a drink at a coffee shop or a pub, or you listen to a tune at the dentist waiting room or whatever, you are indirectly paying, because those people have to pay the tax and they will charge YOU their costs. They charge everything, from music in funerals to charity concerts. They have gone as far as to sneak into weddings and other ceremonies to check if they were playing music.

I simply do not want to know what they may have promised to the different political factions in the country to make the Sinde law succeed (we will also pay for that, mind you). It takes a socialist government to remove a basic freedom (like writing in your web whatever you want) and not only get away with it, but also laugh at and criminalize anyone opposing you.

Guess what? I'll keep buying my stuff from other countries via the Internet and let these "creators" work for their food. Too bad the government -and specially the SGAE government- will take from my taxes anything they need to pay these guys whatever they estimate they deserve. In the movies, when a group of guys walked from one shop to the next asking money for "protection", they called it mafia. In Spain, we call it SGAE.

Late Night Weekend Games

2011-01-17T15:02:00.000-08:00

After re-reading the title, most of you could probably be waiting for something else, but, nope, this is exactly about games. Board games I played this weekend until we couldn't stand awake anymore (that's 6am to you, buddies) while the guys who could not join the board played Left for Dead 2 in team (we managed to end it in a run and everthing :D)

NOTE: We are NOT the people in the videos. Not that we are not freaky enough to tape it, only we did not think of it soon enough ;P

The first one was one of my faves: Galactica. It is obviously based on the TV series, shortly after the pilot, and you can start playing as one of the main characters or as a cylon in disguise. There are many tests you have to deal with, like lack of food, cylon attacks, low moral ... and everyone has to contribute to the trial with cards from their hands; only cylons in disguise may contribute negatively, mind you. For the first time, I got to be the skinjob and did pretty well my job :D In the end, I got all humans in prison or infirmary before revealing myself and Galactica surrounded by ships and crowding with centurions. After I burst the presidential ship, their moral went down to the sink and we won. It's good to be bad! The best part was that I based my whole strategy on the other's paranoia, just like in the series :D

A second game was Pandemia. In this case, it is a collaborative game, were players conform a team including doctors, scientists, engineers and managers that have to fight four different plagues before they outbreak in the unsuspecting world. This game is strange. Initially, it seems quite complex. After five minutes, you realize it is easy. And only after you've lost like 5 times you realize that it is indeed complex, but not because of the game rules, just because it is really easy to lose even when you think you've got everything under control. A really nice game and it's got an advantage: you won't end in a hand to hand combat with all the other players :D

The final choice was Last Night on Earth, a survival zombie game where part of the players play the zombies and the rest need to end one out of five missions in the game. The zombies just want dinner, but they get 4 nifty cards they can use against you, like "lights out", "oh, the horror", "I just forgot the keys in..." and such. Humans are faster, but they only get one card per location (not turn) and if they don't get a weapon, they might as well be wearing sauce. Oh, and if you get infested ... you'll become a very fast zombie in the next turn. Gross! In this case, I was very happy running around the board with the bad guys on my track until I arrived to a location with a male human player and the zombies used their "Last night on Earth" card on me. Go figure. I lost my last three turns and they won. No hard feelings, I had just blasted a few hundreds of them before in the XBox :)

Indecente

2011-01-11T04:04:00.000-08:00

No soy muy amiga de los mails en cadena, pero estoy totalmente de acuerdo con este que me acaba de llegar y, como soy más de blogs que de mails ...
Sentíos libres cada uno de distibuirlo a vuestra conveniencia.

ES JUSTO QUE SE SEPA

Me llega este escrito y me 'invitan' a que NO LO PARE.
NO LO HARE ya que, casi todo lo que dice, es para tenerlo en cuenta.

EL GOBIERNO: Ha bajado el sueldo a los funcionarios, suprimido el cheque-bebé, congelado las pensiones y reducido la ayuda al desempleo, (PARO), para afrontar la crisis que han generado los bancos los políticos y los especuladores bursátiles.

Nos gustaría transmitirle al Gobierno lo siguiente:

Dediquen su empeño en rebajar LA VERGÜENZA DEL FRAUDE FISCAL, que en España se sitúa alrededor del 23% del P.I.B. (10 puntos por encima de la media europea) y por el que se pierden miles de millones de Euros, fraude que repercute en mayores impuestos para los ciudadanos honestos.

TENGAN LA VERGÜENZA de hacer un plan para que la Banca devuelva al erario público los miles de millones de euros que Vds. les han dado para aumentar los beneficios de sus accionistas y directivos, en vez de, facilitar el crédito a las familias y a las empresas, erradicar las comisiones por los servicios bancarios y que dejen de cobrar a los españoles más humildes, el 30.01, cada vez que su menguada cuenta se queda sin saldo. Cosa que ocurre cada 1º de mes, cuando les cargan las facturas de colegios, comunidades, telefonía, etc, cuando aun, no les han abonado la nómina.

PONGAN COTO a los desmanes de las empresas de telefonía y de ADSL que ofrecen los servicios más caros de Europa y de peor calidad.

ELIMINEN la duplicidad de muchas Administraciones Públicas, suprimiendo organismos innecesarios, reasignado a los funcionarios de carrera y acabando con los cargos, asesores de confianza y otros puestos nombrados a dedo que, pese a ser innecesarios en su mayor parte, son los que cobran los sueldazos en las Administraciones Públicas y su teórica función puede ser desempeñada de forma más cualificada por muchos funcionarios públicos titulados y que lamentablemente están infrautilizados.

HAGAN que los políticos corruptos de sus partidos devuelvan el dinero equivalente a los perjuicios que han causado al erario público con su mala gestión o/y sus fechorías, y endurezcan el Código Penal con procedimientos judiciales más rápidos y con castigos ejemplares para ellos.

DIJO la Vicepresidente del gobierno "que es indecente que mientras la inflación es -1% y, tengamos más de 4.000.000 de parados, haya gente que no esté de acuerdo en alargar la jubilación a los 70 años".

Nos gustaría transmitirle a esta "Sra. Vicepresidente" y a todos los políticos, lo que consideramos indecente :

INDECENTE, es que el salario mínimo de un trabajador sea de 624 mes y el de un diputado de 3.996, pudiendo llegar, con dietas y otras prebendas, a 6.500 mes. Y bastantes más por diferentes motivos que se le pueden agregar.

INDECENTE, es que un profesor, un maestro, un catedrático de universidad o un cirujano de la sanidad pública, ganen menos que el concejal de festejos de un ayuntamiento de tercera.

INDECENTE, es que los políticos se suban sus retribuciones en el porcentaje que les apetezca (siempre por unanimidad, por supuesto, y al inicio de la legislatura).

INDECENTE, es que un ciudadano tenga que cotizar 35 años para percibir una jubilación y a los diputados les baste sólo con siete, y que los miembros del gobierno, para cobrar la pensión máxima, sólo necesiten jurar el cargo.

INDECENTE, es que los diputados sean los únicos trabajadores (¿?) de este país que están exentos de tributar un tercio de su sueldo del IRPF.

INDECENTE, es colocar en la administración a miles de asesores, (léase amigotes), con sueldos que ya desearían los técnicos más cualificados.

INDECENTE, es el ingente dinero destinado a sostener a los partidos y sindicatos pesebreros, aprobados por los mismos políticos que viven de ellos.

INDECENTE, es que a un político no se le exija superar una mínima prueba de capacidad para ejercer su cargo (ni cultural ni intelectual).

INDECENTE, es el coste que representa para los ciudadanos sus comidas, coches oficiales, chóferes, viajes (siempre en gran clase) y tarjetas de crédito por doquier.

INDECENTE No es que no se congelen el sueldo sus señorías, sino que no se lo bajen.

INDECENTE, es que sus señorías tengan seis meses de vacaciones al año.

INDECENTE, es que ministros, secretarios de estado y altos cargos de la política, cuando cesan, son los únicos ciudadanos de este país que pueden legalmente percibir dos salarios del ERARIO PÚBLICO.

Y que sea cuál sea el color del gobierno, toooooooodos los políticos se benefician de este moderno "derecho de pernada" mientras no se cambien las leyes que lo regula.

¿Y quiénes las cambiarán? ¿Ellos mismos? Ja.

Juntemos firmas para que haya un proyecto de ley con "cara y ojos" para acabar con estos privilegios, y con otros.

Haz que esto llegue al Congreso a través de tus amigos
ÉSTA SÍ DEBERÍA SER UNA DE ESAS CADENAS QUE NO SE DEBE ROMPER, PORQUE SÓLO NOSOTROS PODEMOS PONERLE REMEDIO A ESTO,
Y ÉSTA, SI QUE TRAERÁ AÑOS DE MALA SUERTE SI NO PONEMOS REMEDIO, está en juego nuestro futuro y el de nuestros hijos.

(Y para que este mail no se convierta en un spam, por favor, borra la dirección de quien te lo envió y escribe las direcciones de las personas a las que se los envíes en CCO.)

DONDE ESTAN LOS ESPAÑOLES?
QUE LEVANTAN MASAS PARA EL FUTBOL
Y NO PARA DEFENDER NUESTROS DERECHOS.

The key of Awesome!

2010-11-18T11:13:00.000-08:00

After so many flames and wrath, I had to be nice for a while (or a post, at least), so I decided to find something I like. The Key of Awesome it is. These guys have a weekly musical web show where they do parodies on most top chart pop starts and whatever they fancy (which is usually equally hilarious, anyway). Just watch their video "I'll never be an emo vampire" and you'll get what I mean :D
And they are not only funny in video, the songs are really hilarious (they even include the lyrics for us, not native-speakers!). They started with a neat flick on people obsessed with kittens on the web (c'mon, we all have a friend like that) sung by ... Metallica!! They've got really catchy songs, but the one that has been bumping over my head during the last week has been Telephone, with Lady Gaga and Beyonce.

I had not seen the original video yet, but I did not really need to :D:D:D Now that I've seen it, I can say that this one is positively better and makes more sense :P

But, hey, no hard feelings. Everybody knows you don't f**k with the Gaga!

BTW, their last video is on Michael Jackson watching Glee. Enough, I say :D

¿¡Shakira, que te ha pasao!?

2010-11-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

(You'll have to forgive me with this one, guys, but some things are better said in spanish :P)

¿Alguno es tan viejo como para acordarse de como era Shakira al principio de los tiempos? Pues voy a refrescaros la memoria. Esta es la Shakira que yo escuchaba y disfrutaba:

Y esta es la que le pidio consejos estilisticos a Madonna para hacer un video (no se tiene que estar riendo nada, la Madonna, que seguro que penso que despues de esto ya nunca perderia el puesto de reinona del pop)

¿Alguien es capaz de encontrar las 5 diferencias? Mmmm, pues si, en la primera lleva las manos sucias, en la segunda lleva una pulsera en el tobillo ... y algo mas debe haber, pero ahora no caigo. La que si parece que ha caido es ella del tercer piso, porque la postura debe ser dolorosisima. Yo creo que, en algun momento, le ha debido de morder el espiritu de Lady Gaga en luna llena y ya no hay nada que hacer por la pobre chica.

Despues de sufrir en silencio (como las hemorroides) los cada vez mas horripilantes cambios no solo en el estilismo, sino en el tono y letra de sus canciones y, sobre todo, en la cantidad de ropa que (no) lleva encima, el video de la loba esa me decidió a poner punto y final a la relacion musical que mantenia con esta mujer desde sus primeros discos (y algun que otro concierto), porque esto es ya mas triste que ver a Bob Dylan tomar clases de estilismo de Tamara y Paco Clavel. Y no es solo la apariencia, que va. Porque, ¿y las letras?. Esto es de mi cancion favorita, Inevitable. Cantautora, con un estilo original, buena voz ...

Siempre supe que es mejor
Cuando hay que hablar de dos
Empezar por uno mismo
Ya sabras la situacion
Aqui todo esta peor
Pero al menos aun respiro
No tienes que decirlo
No vas a volver
Te conozco bien
Ya buscare que hacer contigo
El cielo esta cansado ya de ver
La lluvia caer
Y cada dia que pasa es uno mas
Parecido a ayer
No encuentro forma alguna de
Olvidarte porque
Seguir amandote es inevitable

Y esta "perla" (buscada en Internet, que lo que habla no hay quien lo entienda) del ultimo single Loca (loca hay que estar para ir cuesta abajo y sin frenos despues de una carrera musical tan prometedora, eso si es verdad)

That girl is a naughta
I heat up when I touch her
Chica caliente
Got me rapping to merengue
I feel so el presidente
I’m runnin’ shit and I’m lovin’ it
She’s got a mean lil’ butt,
But you should see what she does with it
She keeps it down low (down low, down low)
I can never get enough (oh no, oh no)

No es ya el estilo pendon verbenero-mujer objeto-guarrona al que ultimamente ya nos tiene acostumbrados a los sufridos fans, sino la remezcla de todos los topicazos latinos que se le pasan por la cabeza al letrista de turno (por favor, que alguien me diga que no es ella!!), mas aquello de que la mitad no hay quien lo entienda. Vamos, que por no entender, no se entiende ni en que lenguaje habla. ¿Que es eso del sofa burgues? Y mejor ni nos reimos del asesinato que perpetra al ingles. Para eso ya estan los americanos (!). Los ingleses simplemente habran decidido que el Dr Who la elimine de su realidad.

A mi solo se me ocurre echarle la culpa de todo ... a ¡Emilio Estefan! ¡Bien que a su mujer la quitó de la farándula y de las Miami Sound Machine (que vienen a ser como 3 Shakiras como la de ahora, igual las ha clonado o algo) y la puso a cantar merengue y son cubano, bien tapadica hasta las rodillas! ¡Malditooo! ¡Asi se te atasque en la tele el video de la loba y no puedas ver Bob Esponja!

Por lo menos, siempre hay alguien contento, claro. Debe ser la primera vez que alguien cambia para parecerse a Paulina Rubio y no al reves :P

Este post va dedicado a la Aplicadilla, otra victima como yo del malvado Estefan y su Miami Cash Machine

Ouch, I did it again!: The witching hour

2010-08-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

Don't you sometimes have experiences that you'd rather have not and chastisize yourself to never, ever fall into the same mistake again? Sure you do. But, then, is it possible that after years pass you can't recall exactly what was so bad about them and fall into the same trap? That is exactly my case. For example, each time I go hiking to the mountains and sleep outdoors after a whole day climbing. Or whenever I find out (with horror) that the movie I'm actually watching is directed by Michael Bay(!).

And it was definitely the case with Interview with a vampire. I'm sorry for the fans, but the book bored me to death, I did not like any of the characters and I just finished it because I have this compulsion not to leave a book until the last page even if I don't like it. Well, ten years later, I found The Witching Hour and someone had told me it was a great book, so I go and start reading it. Boohooo! Anne Rice just like I suddenly remembered her: long, boring descriptions, snail-slow pace that makes you forget about any interest you could have in the story after a while and, certainly, devious sex scenes ranging from incest to whatever comes to (her) mind. And, worst of all, completely open final that forces you to go and buy another brick of a book to learn what the heck happens to the characters (not that you care for any of them at a personal level, mind you, but if you are curious...). And where is the key to understand the whole book? (the lasher) In the next volume, of course.

I should start tatooing the authors I hate in my body as in Memento, in case I find myself reading another Da Vinci code in a few years ...

Summer videogaming: The third phantom

2010-07-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

When one does not have much time for PS2 or XBox, there's always NDS to fool around and, in this case, I just finished Bleach: the Third Phantom. Amazingly, they did not fall in the classic fight game trap, where each title is basically the same the previous was, except with (maybe) more playable characters, different backgrounds and new combos. In this case, they went for a "Valkirie profile" kind of game, where you get a story and strategy. And the story (by Kubo) is even linked to the main stream! In fact, I found it more appealing than the current episodes, which have fallen in the usual "get your ass kicked-train to get more power-beat the enemy to pulp-find someone more powerful" routine that every fight anime seems to eventually fall into at some point. At least, characters do interact (some of them, quite a lot, mind you :P) We get a lot of secondary characters (and not only the most popular ones according to who-knows-what poll in Japan) And you still have time to beat up Arrancar, Espada and whatnots. I did play as the girl, BTW.

Now, if only I could get the time to finish Fall Out 3! It's hard to be the local paladin, side-missions never seem to stop :P

Read on!

2010-06-21T04:14:00.001-07:00

Yep, I know I've been pretty quiet here lately, but time is scarce, so let's go to the point: what I've been reading lately. In most cases, borrowed books, but I met Book Depository and it has been love at first sight :D

Fear Nothing (Dean Koontz)
Christopher Snow is extremely sun-sensitive, so he lives in the night. And, yet, somehow, he is a surfer in California, mind you. And super-cool, like every Koont's main character (note ironic tone here). And he seems to be the only person in town who realizes everyone is acting weird and there are strange creatures on the loose (if you've read ANY other book by the author, no real surprise here). I don't know why I read this. I do not like Koontz's books. They are boring. They are slow. And their ending is completely off-the-hook. It seems at first we are getting somewhere, but eventually, everything is caused by some government experiment and grows to epic proportions, totally out of the hands of the characters that simply decide to go on with their lives. I just read this books every bunch of years, when I forget what a total disappointment was the previous one, just like Roland Emmerich's films (well, in this case, it is usually because I forget to check the movie director before I watch the film and then I curse myself again and again along the very looooong movie...)

Pride, perjudice and zombies (Seth Grahame-Smith)
This was a gift from my brother in law, and, hey, it's fun. Basically, there is not much difference with respect to Austen's original work, except for some beheading and kung-fu. I was not expecting much of the book and that's what I got, but I enjoyed a good laugth here and there and freshened my Austen. Only I ended with this longing to find a husband for every single friend ...

The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (Paul Malmont)
Maybe I was expecting too much of this novel, but it turned out to be too boring to be an action pulp and too pulp to be anything else. In 1937, Walter Gibson, the mind behind The Shadow, and his rival Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage team up to solve H. P. Lovecraft's murder. And there are chinese foes involved, surely. I just could not get interested in the plot, even though it had every element for me to love it.

Truckers (Terry Pratchett)
I might be on a low streak, because I did not get interested in this one either. Unlike the Discworld series, that usually put a smile in my face in every page, Truckers is too dark to really be funny. It focus on the troubles of a tribe of nomes who have always lived inside a mall when outers arrive there just in time to discover that the mall is about to be demolished. The novel point on this is that gnomes live shorter lives, so generations come and go in barely a century and their society reflects that. It is not bad, but not up to Discworld standards.

Private Wars (Greg Rucka)
I hit the jackpot with this one! I like Rucka in general, and Queen and Country usually makes my day (unless I'm kind of low, in that case, I avoid it at all costs). Tara Chace is a british spy (in a very realistic tone) who has just lost a lover and given birth to a daughter, yet she can not really leave the thrill of a job she both loves and hates. She is offered a mission in diplomatically crucial Uzbekistan. President Malikov is ailing, and a succession fight between his son, Ruslam, and evil daughter, Sevara, has begun. Tara is asked to get Ruslam and his son out of the country, but, as usual, the plan does not go as expected and she is just in the middle when all hell breaks loose.

Ender's game (Orson Scott Card)
Yep, better late than never. I finally read this book and it was ok. Not amazing, not bad, just okay. Great expectations, once more, I guess. I think it is too long. It could have been solved as a short story (originally, I've been told it was just that) and it would not have been a great loss. Still, it was good enough to read the second book in a future. Got it from Amazon some months ago, too. Gifted kid born in a military society in perpetual war against an insectoid race. He is sent to military academy before the usual age (he has been conceived for that reason, too) and has to face jealous students, hard training and tough decisions before he even has facial hair. Plus there are some surprises at the end of the story.

I'm leaving something out, most likely, but who cares :) And I've just received my copy of Baltimore, from Mignola and Golden. Book Depository, if I ever get my copy of A game of Thrones in time, this is forever :D!

Year of the living dead ..

2009-11-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

Since I don't have much time to write lately, I've decided to gather here some old, long lost posts that could still be of use. Of course, this one was written before the Twilight thing that seems to be the Beverly Hills, 90210 of the decade, only with (some) blood and pretty, pretty boys ...

"When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth"

So vampires are out! We had our deal of vampire projects both in films (Blade, Underworld, Dracula ...) and comics (20 days of night, I am legend ...) some time ago, but zombies seems to be in now.

Zombies were traditionally soulless bodies meant to obey a sorcerer as slaves, both in chinese and voodoo folklore. However, their rol in horror mostly started in 1968 with Romero's Night of the living dead", where they served no master, but an insatiable hunger for living flesh. Zombie basics were stated here: i) they are awaken by some virus or experiment; ii) they can only be killed by destroying their brains; iii) they are driven by hunger; and iv) if you're bitten, you are a goner. Zombies are dumb and slow, and their strength lies in their number and also in the fact that they are virtually unstoppable unless beheaded. Plus maybe you knew some of them in life ...

"Dawn of the dead" and "Day of the Dead" soon followed and then, for a while, almost everyone did a gore zombie flick. Some people stuck loyally to zombies even in the 90s. For example, Peter "LotR" Jackson did Braindead in 1992 and Raimi's Ash trilogy. I personally enjoyed Tom Savini's "Night of the Living Dead" 1990 remake, with Pat Tallman as a Barbara definitely more lethal than the poor undead. However, the zombies revival would not come until the last years and it was probably another remake, "Dawn of the Dead", that brought them back. The novelty of the film: now zombies ran like hell!
Obviously, the Resident Evil games and films helped as well. RE1 was very cool -as any Paul Anderson film- and had an intelligent plot that absorbed my attention all the way to the end. RE2, however, seemed boring to me and the characters, even Alice, were flat. RE3 was not up to it, either.

I also have a thing for The Undead, but, be warned, you really need a sense of humour to watch this one!
We also had the horrible -in a bad sense- "House of the Dead" and the somewhat different, "Shaun of the Dead". But let's talk comics now.

I guess the current run started with Dark Horse "Zombie World", by Mignola and McEown. Mignola was already well into Hellboy and he wrote the first limited series of this short lived project. An evil ancient priest came back from the dead and tricked humans into blasting him to pieces, despite the efforts of the main characters, a group of paranormal investigators. Of course, his "death" brings the dead back to life and he becomes their king. These series were released prior to the new zombie fever and only lasted for 3 limited series and a few specials.

IDW released Niles and Dwyer's Remains, a very well drawn series with a somewhat simple script. Some brain decides to destroy all nuclear weapons by putting them all together in a so called "nuclear oven" and burning them in a public exhibition, only there's free access to jackasses and a red button with a bright sign "Do not touch me". Obviously, there's an accident and the resulting blast turns everyone around into zombies. The main characters, however, were locked inside a vault in Reno -don't ask- and save their lives only to find themselves surrounded by thousand of hungry zombies. Hungry evoluting zombies.

Next zombie project is a cool one: Kirkman's "The Walking Dead", a very well told soap opera with zombies. The series start like "28 days". Rick Grimes awakes alone in an empty hospital. While he has been in a coma, the world has gone to hell. Somehow, the dead are now roaming the country and eating everyone and he has to find his family in the reigning havoc. However, the series is not about killing zombies, but about relationships, social dynamics and human interaction in a extreme situation. Not that there's no zombie killing, also :)

And now, things I have not read yet ...

-Barbara's zombie chronicles: Barbara was one of the main characters of Night of the Living Dead and, being the main character in these series, she must have been taken from the remake (she did not end that well in the original film), so expect guns and attitude! The art is not my piece, but maybe the story is ok ...

-Containment: zombies in space! Apparently, something goes VERY wrong with hibernating astronauts in a ship ... Haven't seen anything on this one yet.

-Romero's Toe Tag: A classic. In a nick of time, the undead have taken control of Earth and a few survivors struggle to keep surviving... It's Romero, after all!

Plus there are more projects, included in this zombie comic list.

You can't take the sky from me

2009-04-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post, basically because I have to work for a living (but not so much, mind ya :D). Thus, just to let you know I'm alive, I found this old text I wrote for the spanish edition of the first Firefly miniseries. Here ya go (no time for translation, sorry :():

Antecedentes

Alrededor del 2057 dC la Tierra dejó de disponer de los recursos necesarios para sustentar a su creciente población. Contrariamente a lo que cabía esperar de la especie, en lugar de exterminarse en una guerra mundial, sus dos grandes superpotencias, China y Estados Unidos, colaboraron en una migración masiva a una estrella cercana, rodeada de planetas y lunas cuyas características los hacían susceptibles de volverse habitables.

Tras un viaje tan largo que una generación completa nunca llegó a ver el exterior de una nave, se terraformaron los primeros planetas, Sihnon y Londinium, bautizados tras Sino, un apodo para la palabra chino, y Londres, que Estados Unidos se había anexionado tiempo atrás. La terraformación lleva décadas hasta obtener planetas con la misma gravedad y atmósfera que la Tierra y durante ese tiempo de colaboración, las culturas china y americana se fundieron, combinándose el inglés y el mandarín en una única lengua estándar. Ambos mundos constituyeron lo que más tarde se conoció como El Núcleo, asociación a la que se unirían los mundos de Osiris y Ariel.

Sin embargo, el viaje espacial no contribuyó a igualar las clases sociales y, ante la creciente ocupación de los planetas más civilizados, los ciudadanos más pobres emigraron a otros más alejados. Es estos mundos, sobrevivieron como pudieron, carentes de la tecnología más avanzada y sujetos a enfermedades endémicas como el mal de Bowden. Pocos años más tarde, aparecerían por la frontera del sistema los seres conocidos como los Reabres. Según los rumores, sus víctimas eran violadas hasta la muerte, devoradas y despellejadas para servir de vestimenta a sus verdugos y, si tenían mucha suerte, en ese orden. Si bien nadie podía confirmar esos rumores, dado que no dejaban supervivientes, la creencia general era que procedían de la degeneración en las fronteras de lo que alguna vez fueron seres humanos.

Algún tiempo después, los planetas del Núcleo se constituyeron en la Alianza. Si bien no pretendía en principio constituir una asociación imperialista, la organización militarista que se encargaba de mantener las disposiciones de ésta tenía claramente otros objetivos. Incluso se constituyeron organizaciones secretas cuya existencia desconocía la mayoría del parlamento y que se rumorea que llevaban a cabo experimentos con especimenes humanos.

Cuando los recursos escasearon en el Núcleo, se decidió que todos los planetas externos debían unirse a la Alianza y someterse a sus leyes. Esta iniciativa encontró una fuerte oposición en algunos mundos exteriores, que se unieron en una guerra civil contra el Núcleo, irónicamente denominada Guerra de la Unificación, pese a que poco podían hacer contra las fuertemente armadas y mucho más avanzadas tropas de éste. La guerra duró años (2506-2511) y mundos enteros se vieron arrasados. La última batalla se libró en el valle de Serenity, en el planeta Hera, donde las fuerzas independientes o Chaquetas Marrones fueron finalmente erradicadas y los mundos se unieron bajo el ya férreo control de la Alianza.

Los personajes

Malcolm Reynolds se unió como voluntario al 57 Regimiento de Infantería de los Independientes –familiarmente conocido como la Brigada “Bolas y Bayonetas”- cuando apenas tenía 20 años, alcanzando el grado de sargento. Su planeta natal, Shadow, fue bombardeado y destruido por la Alianza poco tiempo después y todo lo que le quedó fue la cabo Zoe Alleyne, soldado profesional, letal, eficiente y leal hasta la muerte, con la que participó en muchas de las campañas más sangrientas, como Du-Khang o New Kashmir. También tomaron parte en la última batalla de la guerra, en el valle de Serenity, cuya importancia estratégica lo hacía indispensable a ambos bandos. Pese a comandar inicialmente a poco más de treinta efectivos, la elevada tasa de mortandad entre los mandos lo puso al frente de más de dos mil soldados: un total de 16 brigadas y 20 tanques antiaereos que consiguieron mantener la posición durante casi dos meses. Completamente rodeados, Reynolds mantuvo a duras penas la moral de la tropa en espera del apoyo aéreo de la 82, que nunca llegó. Tras la muerte de casi medio millón de efectivos, Mal conservó apenas 400 hombres, que fueron diezmados por la enfermedad y el hambre cuando ambos bandos olvidaron a sus soldados mientras firmaban la paz. Al llegar los cuerpos médicos, ante el “Gracias a Dios” de Zoe, Mal se limitó a contestar “¿Dios? ¿Qué colores viste?”. Había perdido oficialmente lo que le quedaba de fe.

Reacio a adaptarse a un sistema controlado por la Alianza, Mal compró su propia nave, un transporte 03-K64 Firefly de segunda mano que previamente perteneció a un tal Capitán Harbatkin y cuyo registro nunca llegaría a actualizar. A partir de ese momento, Reynolds la bautizaría como Serenity. Zoe permanecería con él como segunda al mando y tendría gran influencia en la incorporación de Hoban “Wash” Washburne, un excelente piloto que podría haber obtenido un trato mucho mejor en cualquier otro crucero pero que acabaría casándose con ella apenas un año más tarde. Pese al buen talante y al carácter afable de Wash, su matrimonio sería motivo de disputa con el capitán, que no lo consideraba suficiente para Zoe, mientras que el piloto desconfiaba igualmente de la lealtad incondicional de su esposa hacia Reynolds. Este conflicto se saldaría años después durante una aventura conjunta.

Otra adquisición para la tripulación la supuso Jayne Cobbs, mercenario y rastreador, capaz de vender a su madre si el precio es adecuado. Cobbs tendió una trampa a Serenity junto a sus asociados, pero no dudó en cambiar de bando cuando Mal le ofreció mejores condiciones. Cobbs es extremadamente útil pero poco de fiar, si bien en ocasiones ha sorprendido favorablemente a sus compañeros. El último –y más joven- miembro de la tripulación lo constituye Kaylee Frye, un auténtico genio de la mecánica. Procedente de un planeta relativamente atrasado, se cruzó con Reynolds cuando el anterior mecánico de éste, un tal Bester, la invitó a una visita privada a Serenity. Después de que Kaylee solucionara un problema que éste se había confesado incapaz de arreglar durante las últimas semanas, Reynolds lo sustituyó inmediatamente. Kaylee no sólo parecía comunicarse con la nave, sino que resultó ser además la alegría del grupo y la hermana menor que ninguno tenía.

Con esta tripulación, Serenity estaba lista para aceptar cualquier trabajo –legal o ilegal- que mantuviera combustible en los motores y comida sobre la mesa. Sin embargo, la renuencia del capitán a aceptar trabajos inmorales en ocasiones hacía difícil este objetivo, motivo por el cual se optó por alquilar las dos lanzaderas de la nave. Increíblemente, una acompañante registrada se interesó por una de ellas. Las acompañantes eran el equivalente a las geishas japonesas y, como éstas, gozaban de un altísimo estatus social, podían permitirse escoger sus clientes y tenían la exquisita educación de la que no disponía ningún miembro de la tripulación de Serenity. El incluirla en la nave suponía una clara ventaja estratégica, ya que le confería la respetabilidad necesaria para amarar en determinados puertos muy por encima del estatus de la nave. Por qué Inara Serra decidió abandonar la Casa Madre en Sihnon, pese a que podría haber llegado gobernarla en poco tiempo, para viajar en una chatarra espacial por los confines del Núcleo es algo que nadie se ha conseguido explicar. Además, el ejercicio de su profesión, que Mal simplifica a simple prostitución y su apoyo a la Alianza durante la Guerra, unido a la obvia atracción entre ambos supuso una fuente de conflictos lo suficientemente importante como para que Reynolds decidiese no alquilar la otra lanzadera.

La serie

Tras un negocio fallido, como la mayoría de los de Reynolds, éste decidió probar suerte con su carga en una luna lejana y, para amortizar el desplazamiento, llevar pasajeros de pago. Entre éstos se encontaba el pastor Derrial Book, aparentemente más interesado por el viaje que por el destino, un tal Lawrence Dobson y Simon Tam, un joven doctor de aspecto adinerado que parecía huir de algo y se interesaba –en opinión de Mal- en exceso por la nave y sus tripulantes. Consciente de que su nave resultaba menos que atractiva para individuos de semejante clase social, Malcolm decidió mantener un ojo en Simon. Así, cuando detectó que una nave de la Alianza le pisaba los talones, asumió la culpabilidad de Tam y, tras derribarlo, abrió el enorme baúl que transportaba, descubriendo criogenizada a una chica adolescente. Esta resultó ser su hermana River, una joven superdotada que una agencia secreta gubernamental había secuestrado y que Simon acababa de recuperar en contra de la voluntad de su familia, convirtiéndose, a todo efecto, en un fugitivo. Dobson se descubrió inmediatamente como el topo de la Alianza, pero no iba tras Serenity, sino tras los Tam. Mal podría haberlo entregado para mantener a salvo a los suyos, pero Dobson perdió los nervios e, involuntariamente, hirió a Kaylee en lo que resultó ser un movimiento terriblemente estúpido. Tras reducir a Dobson, que eventualmente acabaría abandonado en Whitefalls con un disparo en la cabeza, Mal ordenó a Simon que salve la vida a su mecánico, pero éste se negó salvo que lo ayudaran a escapar de la nave de la Alianza a su espalda. Mal cedió, pero le garantizó que si la chica moría, ambos hermanos acabarán reuniéndose con ella. En realidad, Mal simpatiza con las causas perdidas y acabó ofreciéndole a Simon el puesto de médico de a bordo muy a pesar de Jayne, que está dispuesto a entregarlos a la menor ocasión. Kaylee, sin embargo, vió una oportunidad en el doctor, que sin embargo parecía ajeno a sus intentos de seducción.

Aparentemente, River Tam había perdido la cabeza y actuaba de forma errática y, en ocasiones, peligrosa. Con el tiempo, resultó evidente que había sido sometida a neurocirugía una y otra vez para potenciar sus capacidades innatas. Como resultado, no dispone de los filtros naturales para aislar pensamientos y emociones, ya sean suyos … o no. Bajo estas circunstancias, resultaba obvio su valor para la Alianza y el por qué eventualmente alguien acabaría dando con ellos, motivo por el cual Malcolm optó por desviarse de las rutas más habituales. Esto situó a Inara en una posición incómoda, más aún en tanto que sus sentimientos por el capitán estaban comenzando a interferir seriamente con su trabajo. De forma similar, el pastor Book, que había decidido permanecer en la nave para hacer lo posible por la integridad moral de la tripulación, descubrió que, más bien al contrario, Malcolm lo estaba conduciendo a comportarse de forma violenta, lo que le recuerda a un pasado que intentó dejar atrás. Un pasado en el que tuvo en la Alianza un puesto lo suficientemente relevante como para desviar de sus deberes a un crucero de guerra.
Ahora, tras un último trabajo fallido, las reservas económicas de la tripulación están en las últimas, la Alianza sigue de cerca de Serenity e Inara ha decidido marcharse. Parece que nada puede irle peor al capitán Reynolds …

Anime madness!

2008-12-25T10:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't written much lately, basically because I haven't done much lately beside working and, at some point of the day, watching TV or, rather, DVDs, as there is not much on TV to watch. So, today I just decided to go through some anime I've been on these days. Did you ever start to watch this japanese cartoon show and think, "this is quite a kiddie thing" just to, after a few episodes, thank God you never got your nieces to actually watch it? This is anime for you, guys!

First, there is Bleach. The underlying concept is pretty ordinary; you get these gods of death, or shinigami, basically in charge of collecting the souls of dead people just after their demise. If they don't, these souls may become what they call hollows, the bad guys from the show. They carry these really large swords they can modify with their inner force and most of them can use martial arts and even magic -kido- at some extent. The show starts when Ichigo, the main character, helps this shinigami Rukia girl defeat some hollows by borrowing her sword and, with it, most her powers. Now he is stuck with her job and hollows seems to be everywhere. He is also stuck with Rukia, as she can not return to her world without powers, and she is not very familiar with this world either. Plus there is this mistery plot around the shinigami that everyone is involved into, yet knows nothing about. Even though the key concept is pretty usual, the series are nifty -at least during season one- mostly because of the secondary characters and the underlying humour. Ichigo is basically the tormented teenager, but his friends, Orihime, the quincy and Urahara are hilarious, and, once in the Seritei, captains like Shunshui, the 11th squad or Kuukaku and her brother really made my day. There are also pretty cool combat scenes, but I'd stick to Yoruichi and SoiFon shunpo combat, in pure jiajutsu style, without swords and toys, basically because you get to see most of the hits. And the intro sequences are the best design I've seen in anime. Too bad they decided to switch to a different style in the stupid, stupid bounto saga, where all you get is angst and emo characters and none of the absurdity and weirdness of season one. Just like Dragon Ball a decade ago. Maybe the hollow saga is better, but I haven't gathered the resolution to go back to the series after the bounto fiasco.

Now, something different: Great Teacher Onizuka. This Onizuka guy used to be the leader of a gang of bikers when he was a teen, but now he is older and supposed to do something with his life. He decides to become a teacher, mostly because he will get to see lot of girls in short skirts: too bad he does not have the qualifications. Still, Onizuka has something that most teachers don't: an understanding of the students. During a work interview, the director of a school notices that and decides to hire him ... to teach the hardest group in the place. These guys have already sent into depression 4 or 5 teachers and none lasted more than 2 months, but Onizuka manages to win them one by one and to discover the secret behind the class behavior, and, at the same time, solves their problems and makes a fool of himself again and again and again in front of (one among many) the girl he likes (sometimes). This anime is fun, fun, fun and some of the episodes are really good at storytelling.

Back to fantasy, but no swords, Full Metal Alchemy has a nifty plot. These guys, Alfonz and Edward, start to dabble with alchemy to impress their mom after their dad, a very famous alchemist, leaves one day. Too bad her mom gets sick and dies, because they decide to bring her back from the dead using alchemy, but forget about its most important rule: equivalent exchange. In order to get something, you must pay with something of the same value. The experiment is a disaster: their mother returns as a horrible creature that explodes later, Ed loses an arm and a leg and Alfonz's body evaporates and his soul gets bonded to a golem armor to prevent him from dying. Wenry, the kid's neighbour and a hot shot at mechanics (go engineers,go!), provides some limbs for Ed and her granny takes them into their home, but in time they decide to leave and join the army so they can become alchemists and find the philosopher stone. Their goal is to use it to recreate Alfonz's body, but it is easier said than done. First, the army is not as clean as one might (or might not :)) think. Then, there is something really disturbing about the stone and anyone involved with it. Also, there is this strange murderer after alchemists. And, besides, who are the very mysterious homunculus? In this case, a simple plot that turns out not to be so simple after a few chapters and becomes rather complex, but coherent. Plus secondary characters are great, as usual, and the art is pretty good.

If you want to look for something really weird, try Dokuro Chan. She is a guardian angel from the future who comes to the current days with her bat Excaliborg to ... help(???) the main character, a shy teenager who likes a school mate (and any other female in the series, he's a teen, after all). Her help basically consists of killing him in the goriest possible way to bring him back to life later each time he does or say (or whatever) something that displeases her. There is also Sabatto-chan, the evil angel from the future who is supposed to kill the guy, but she is so useless when compared to murderous Dokuro that she gives pity. Plus everthing bad in the series not happening to the main character will most likely go her way. This anime might not be your choice, there are some scenes I laught at, but all in all I can't exactly get in the mood to watch this. It is like Bobobo, you either like it or hate it, only I don't like Bobobo at all: too strange for my taste.

Finally, Monster is one of the best series I've seen. It goes about this hot shot surgeon who likes life easy and won't quarrel with anyone, rather sheepishly obeying his boss and girlfriend, until one of these orders make him choose between the life of a rich man and a poor worker who had, in fact, arrived earlier. After thinking on how his ideals went corrupt, he has a second choice: the major of the town or a 7-years old kid with a gun shot on the head. This time he goes for the kid and the major dies. He loses his job, girlfriend and social position ... until his boss and superiors die poisoned that very same night and he is chosen head or surgery. It turns out 10 years later that the kid was, in fact, already a very dangerous sociopath and he had saved his life, so he is, in part, responsible for the many people he had killed in the last decade ... and will kill in the future. Again, he has to make a decision: leave the hospital and go find the killer, Johann, to finish him ... if he is capable of. From this point on, the anime becomes a superb road movie with hundreds of secondary characters and a very dark underlying story.

Not too bad for someone who only watched three anime series as a teen: Dragon Ball (of course), Saint Seiya (tea time) and Sailor Moon (they ran it during breakfast, guess stomach rules my TV :D). Dragon Ball was pretty cool during the first dozen episodes, up until the first martial arts competition. I laughted and laughted with the secondary characters and Goku's ignorance about practically anything. However, as soon as it became a neverending circle of "get more power - smash your fiend - find someone stronger to beat you up" and back again, I hated it. The deepest character in the series at the point was probably Goku's bo. Saint Seiya was pretty cool, with the armors, and the fights and everything, only it was always the same: Athena got captured by some unknown enemy that put her into a deadly trap and gave the saints 24 hours to free her. These guys would go against the baddies one by one, rather than smashing them together. Seiya's technique would basically be to let the others beat him up until they were too tired or too disgusted with his blood to go on and then finish them. Eventually, they'd free Athena and unmask the bad guy, who would vanish in thin air. The first time, it worked for me. The second -Asgard saga- was even better in terms of character development (the baddies were not that bad and such), but it was exactly the same. At Poseidon saga, I decided to just give up. Sailor Moon is a different matter, I can't recall much about the plot, because I only caught parts of the episodes with my coffe and cookies, but I just could not help by laugth with the transformations and little speeches of this main character, the Moon Warrior or whatever. I still remember her in the middle of a concert where the cello had gone nuts (and alive, of course) and massacred equally the band and the bystanders, but she would not do anything until the thing accidentally steps on a pot and then it goes like "For killing that little innocent flower, I won't forgive you. Moon, give me your powers!!" HAHAHAHA! It's true, unlike people flowers are really cool xDxD

I'm thinking about Samurai Champloo or Death Mask next ...

Spaced!!!

2008-11-17T03:48:00.000-08:00

Just when you were thinking about giving up on TV comedies, you get something new and fresh like this!

Spaced is a comedy by Simon "Shaun of the dead" Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who are forced to pretend they are a couple to rent an apartment. It must be like the freakiest thing I've seen in years, and it is beautifully filmed (up to the point I actually noticed), plus all actors are superb (specially the leading two, but never forget about the supporting cast). There are references to basically every film, TV series, comic and book I like and in some episodes (still need to watch season 2) I just could not stop laughing through two or three scenes in a row.

What can I say, I even love its music! If you liked IT Crowd, you'll love Spaced (not the same at all, but take my word for it). Go watch it now!

Bwahahahaha!!! My precioussssss ...

2008-10-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

After barely 15 years of waiting, I finally got Federico Mendelsson Bartholdy full adventures in hard cover and all! Okay, I had them all in strips back from the time when they were published in CIMOC (that I conveniently bougth second hand in Madrid), but handling a few kilos to read them all in a row was not the best choice. I still need to get biceps to read the Narnia deluxe edition with illustrations and everything ... :D

A bit of outrage to start the day ...

2008-10-21T01:53:00.000-07:00

And that's my fault for watching the morning news every day. Today we get an all nice strike on the judicial system. Wanna know why? Some time ago, a judge (or so he claims) -Rafael Tirado- lets this child molester go free even though he was convicted. The reasons he would plead later? Because he had too much work. Me, I have too much work and need to go for extra-hours. A judge can simply let people walk by, guilty or not, and go home happily. Whatever the reasons, the guy does not waste time, moves to the south and kidnaps and kills a 5 years old girl. Now, they realize that he should not have been free (not morally speaking here, LEGALLY) at the time and they ask for responsibilities to this judge guy. He just says that he had too much work, as commented, and his fellow judges decide that he should get some punishment. The price for getting a kid killed? 1500 EUR, it seems justice is on sale, lately. But ok, you just think for yourself justice is a f**** sh** in this country and go on with your life. Only yesterday vicepresident de la Vega dares to say that the judge should have had a harder punishment ... and guess what? NOW the judicial power IS MOBILIZED. On strike. Because they think that we should not have an opinion on how they work to avoid putting pressure on them!! Or maybe they mean "expressing" an opinion, because after the 1500 EUR sentence, I guess they don't give a s* about what we think. The same guys who spend hours giving their own opinion on politics and government on TV, even though they are supposed to be a separare power!!! And they'll tell us how much work they have later ... What a country

It's autumn in Tuscany!!

2008-10-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

More movies!

2008-10-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

Wanted

... better than expected. True, I was not expecting much, but it was fun anyway. FX left aside (which was good), there was a story and everything. It had not much to do with the comics, but it was ok. However, Jolie looks so thin in the movie that is not amazing that she can dodge bullets -

3:10 to Yuma
This flick had one big attraction point to me: Christian Bale. And, yep, he does a cool anti-hero. Crowe is cool too, in his role as outlaw. This is, obviously, a remake, so nothing new under the sun. It is a bit slow, also, but all in all, ok. In this kind of western, I stick to LAST TRAIN TO GUN HILL (1959), with Kirk Douglas, which goes on the same lines (train to be reached with strong opposition to get a criminal to justice, small town to wait for it ...) but, somehow, has more action from my humble point of view. It does not have Bale, though :P

I wanna see Nim and maybe Mirrors now ...

I know what you wrote last summer

2008-09-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

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

Movies or whatever pass for them these days...

2008-09-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

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!!

Back from summer and winter is coming

2008-09-03T01:30:00.001-07:00

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
.
.
.
.
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!

Granada and Loreena McKennitt: 40 degrees in july

2008-07-28T02:07:00.001-07:00

Last saturday I was invited to Loreena McKennit's last concert in Spain this summer. I had already been to one of her concerts years ago, but she never fails to amaze me with this heavenly voice of her

I got lucky and got almost every favorite song of mine played. The best known ones, like the Highway Man and some less popular like Tango to Evora. Not much from the last record, though, but there is a new one in the oven for Xmas :)

Sun, sea and Swing!!

2008-07-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, it was one of those days where everything looks weird around and it looks as if you have walked into a different dimension with alternate versions of the people you know. Must be the heat or something. However, the remarkable thing was that I went to Madeleine Peyroux's concert during Terral'08 (Malaga). Does she have a cool live show!! She ended her perfomance, just before the bis, with my fav song "Dance me to the end of love", with enough variations from the CD to make it a new experience and she even sang a couple of new songs. Now, if I could just make it to a Marlango concert ...

Eurocup!

2008-06-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not much into soccer myself, but beating Italy and Germany is well worth a post here! Go, boys!

Pulau Ubin, close to Singapore

2008-06-26T10:02:00.001-07:00

Just a couple of pictures to update a bit. These are from a little island close to Singapore coast, where I almost drove a bike into a large, large reptile. It was its fault, it crossed the road without looking around :P
Cool natural coconut milk, though :)

The secret history of the world

2008-06-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

I just got the Hellboy Companion from Previews and I'm heavily updating my map of weird Hellboy events while awaiting the movie :)

Ver mapa más grande

Today, a comic strip recommendation ...

2008-06-18T04:55:00.001-07:00

The unspeakable vault of doom!! It's not the first time I drop by, and yet they keep making me laught all the time :D Of course, I'm a Cthulhu fan, you see, so I lean towards this kind of humour :)

Amazing paintings!

2008-06-13T03:51:00.001-07:00

Have I ever commented how much I love art? This gallery is one of those places that makes me keep interest on the thing, even when I have no time to surf around. Jose Carlos has still no physical expo of his paintings, but I'm really looking forwards to see one. You should really pay him a visit and, if you've been here for a while, you know that I do not recommend so many things :) Superb!

Movies this last week ...

2008-06-08T04:46:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to catch on, after many weeks of travelling, and I did it as usual: extremely. I've watched four movies in less than 10 days: Indiana Jones and the crystal Skull, The mist, Casual Day and Iron Man.

Let's start Indy. I love Indy, that's just it. I like all four movies and he is my favorite action character. True, I like more the first and the third film, like your everyday average jane, but I don't know why people just talk so bad about this one. It's Indy, as usual! The film occurs at the 50s and, from that point on, the script is justified. Action is cool, dialogues are fun and we get Marion back! Plus I really like Mutt, he is a laugh. Not as much as the paranormal russian expert (she was the real thing), but a laugh anyways!

The Mist was a film I found bored. Just to be on the safe side, most of the people liked exactly what I did not: too much dialogue, not so much action. The characters are your basic Stephen King prototypes: the old, reliable teacher, the artist who lives in a small town, the loser who has never left town ... nothing new here. The script sort of reminded me of Halflife, like Deep Blue Sea, but DBS was much faster and fun and they both got my fav thing in the film: Thomas Jane. I guess it was too slow for me, that's it.

Casual day: something I could have watched on TV, and I think that briefs it. Not bad, but nothing special. Actors are ok, but everything in the script is to be expected and nothing special really happens. It goes basically about a "casual day" at work, where everyone has to go to activities and talk about their things and play paintball with the fellows and such. If you don't have anything else to do, not bad to spend some time.

Maybe I was not expecting much of this film, but, boy, did I enjoy it! I'm no big fan of Iron Man and I don't particularly like the actors in the movie, but they were perfect here. Plus I loved every bit of technology in the flick, specially those amazing Augmented Reality toys that Tony keeps handling all the time! This was the best superhero movie since Batman Begins, and that one was starred by my beloved, so I was leant to like it :) Do not miss this one, you'll have a good time!

A little canadian friend

2008-06-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

If you get to this Banff lake ...

And climb all the way up to Six Glaciers plain (not in shorts, if you can avoid it :P)

You'll most likely meet many of these :)

Lavazzo: Boy! How cold can water be ...

2008-06-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

... in this tiny island in the mediterranean, just on the border between Corsica and Sardegnia. Of the 4 people in the picture, two actually did not even jump in later. Guess who? :D

Antartica Star City

2008-05-29T00:46:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was coming back to Malaga by plane when I read this in Iberia's journal:

It seems that there is something as cool as a Lost Brittlestar City below the antartic sea :)
More news on the subject can be found on Environmental Graffiti and the Underwater times. Too bad that with a current 50 times larger than all the water flowing in all the rivers of the world and a depth ranging from 850 meters below surface to 90 meters below at its peak, no dry suit is getting us there. Probably for best :)

Reelect governor Marley ...

2008-05-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Plunder, plunder,
How I wonder
How'd ya get
So doggone pretty.

Home to sailers,
Barbers, tailors.
And Puerto Pollo
Your capital city.

Because life is cool that way :P

Got it

2008-05-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

Because lately I don't have that much to tell, I'll just upload a list of strange things to eat (and drink) that I have at home :P

-Tea: Jasmine Tenfu (China), Zouk (Egypt) Fleur de Geisha and Fruits du Tibet (Palais du the), Mint (UK)

-Burratta, mozzarella di bufala & pie de buey (Piccoli piaccere, Rome)

-Chocolats Pierre Marcolini: blac poivre et epicé, origine madagascar (Brussels) Godiva, and Sampaka (azafran, mora, epices), Martiniquese (black fondant), Oaxaqueño (black fondant), Crackania mango & canela (Chocolat factory)

-Rum pope (Sta Clara, Mexico), Limoncello (Sorrento, Italy), Meloncello Antichi Sappori (Amalfi, Italy)

-Cafe la tazza de Oro (Rome, Italy) Volio (Costa Rica)

-Cane sugar (Martinique)

-Almogrote cheese and green mojo (Gomera, Canary Islands), Torta del Casar (Extremadura, Spain)

-Home made salty beef

-Spices (morocco, thai, italian)

-Red hot pepper (Martinique)

-Mole negro (Oaxaca)

And, right now, I think this is it. So much to eat and my stomach does not cooperate ... :(

Perfect target!

2008-05-10T08:33:00.000-07:00

I may hate planes, but I know well my geography ;)

I'm a big girl now ...

2008-04-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

... and finally I've managed to upload videos to Youtube. Talk about tech-disability here! :P

Two flight flicks from a helicopter in Grand Canyon (Colorado) on october, 2007.

Tomb Raider!

2008-04-29T00:49:00.001-07:00

Cambodia rulz!!

Hellboy: The secret history of the world

2008-04-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

Hi, people,
With Hellboy's new film almost ready on the oven, I've decided to give a different format to my collection of references to every BPRD case in the books:

Ver mapa más grande

Not finished, but I'll keep working ;)

Todos los días es Halloween: Mike Mignola y el género de terror

2008-03-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

This text is translated into english at the end of the post for non spanish speakers' convenience. (Esto lo escribi hace algun tiempo para un fanzine y lo he encontrado en mi viejo disco duro. Espero que os guste)

Desde hace ya bastante tiempo ha destacado con luz propia en el mundo del comic el estilo de Mike Mignola, maestro de las sombras y el claro-oscuro. Mignola ha evolucionado con los años hacia un trazo simple y efectista y su estilo se ha comentado ampliamente [12][13], por lo que este artículo va a tratar sobre un aspecto distinto del autor: su trabajo como guionista y las influencias del terror clásico en sus historias.

Después de trabajar varios años para las compañías más importantes del panorama americano, a Mignola se le ofreció la oportunidad de crear su propio personaje bajo unas condiciones mucho más flexibles bajo la línea Legend, de Dark Horse, en la que ya se encontraban autores de renombre como Frank Miller, Art Adams o John Byrne. Éste consideró que era el momento de dedicarse a dibujar los temas que le
gustaban y así nació Hellboy.

Después de una serie de apariciones sueltas con la temática común de 'Hellboy machaca [introduzca aquí su monstruo favorito]' y básicamente publicadas en sucesivos Dark Horse Presents, la primera miniserie de Hellboy [1] fue guionizada por John Byrne sobre una idea del propio Mignola, pero según las palabras de éste, al final ejerció mucho más control sobre el producto final del que se suponía en un principio y, a partir de ahí, tomó las riendas de sus historias. 'Semilla de Destrucción' introduce el origen del personaje y las bases que guiarán su desarrollo.

La referencia más obvia en las páginas de Hellboy al terror clásico es la existencia de un infierno, de acuerdo a la concepción cristiana de éste, habitado por demonios. De acuerdo a las costumbres del Sabbat [14], el héroe es el fruto de la impía unión de una bruja con uno de éstos [10], lo que hace de Hellboy el típico personaje empozoñado por una mitad oscura con la que se encuentra en contínua pugna. La idea es bastante común en la narrativa actual, pero puede remontarse hasta la literatura inglesa medieval, cuando Beowülf, hijo del diablo y de una princesa engañada, consagra su vida a combatir los designios de su progenitor. Este tipo de héroes suelen heredar determinados poderes, pero también una sed de sangre que a duras penas logran contener, si es que no son decididamente malignos, como en el caso de La Profecía. En este aspecto, Hellboy no está tan sujeto a este tipo de instintos como a su inexorable destino como destructor de naciones [1][7][9], para el que fué invocado por Rasputín, el brujo.

Aparte de la aparición de Rasputín, personaje histórico de la Rusia de los zares que alcanzó cierto poder como hombre santo sólo para ser traicionado y asesinado por su amigo Yusopov, la mayoría de las influencias que subyacen al hilo argumental básico son puramente lovecraftianas. Es necesario notar, no obstante, que Mignola trabaja sobre una amalgama entre el infierno según la tradición cristiana y la mitología del autor H.P. Lovecraft. Mientas que Abe Sapiens, un compañero de Hellboy, cuadra bastante bien en el perfil del tritón atlántico [14], es innegable que los ayudantes de Rasputín guardan un claro parecido con los Profundos, una raza servidora menor vagamente antropoide pero con características notablemente anfibias [4]. Es de notar el hecho de que Lovecraft describe la posibilidad de transmutar en rana a entidades de este tipo, lo que explicaría el papel de éstas a lo largo de la primera miniserie.

Las influencias de la cosmogonía lovecraftiana se aprecian asimismo en la invocación de Rasputín que a punto está de despertar a un conjunto de seres atemporales que duermen en el espacio exterior. Aparentemente, la venida de estos seres marcará el fin del mundo tal como se conoce. Mignola hace referencia a los siete, número que no encaja ni con los cinco dioses exteriores ni con los 12 primigenios. Numéricamente, podría tratarse más bien de éstos últimos, ya que los más conocidos son sólo siete: Cthugha, Cthulhu, Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyogtha, Shudde M'ell y Tsathogghua. No obstante, los primigenios no reposaban en el espacio, sino en tumbas esparcidas a lo largo y ancho del planeta. Además, en otra historia [15] aparece una invocación a Suggor Yogeroth, un ser ancestral cuyo nombre es un claro anagrama de Yog-Sothoth, uno de los dioses exteriores.

Es también notable el hecho de que cuando Rasputín y el monstruo con tentáculos son encontrados, ambos hacen honor a una de las más conocidas frases del Necronomicón [4]:
'No está muerto aquello que puede dormir toda la eternidad y, con los extraños eones, tal vez hasta la propia muerte perezca'. El propio Rasputín recibe un tratamiento más en la línea del hechicero típico de los Mitos que del clásico brujo tradicional, y cabe destacar la curiosa mezcla de tecnología y magia que utiliza, presente tanto en dichos Mitos como en la obra posterior del autor Fritz Leiber.

Una nueva referencia a la literatura de terror es la existencia del BPRD, una organización consagrada a lidiar con temas paranormales en bien de la humanidad. Organizaciones de este tipo ya aparecen en la obra Lovecraft, como la Fundación Wilmarth [5], cuyos miembros se autodefinen como "cazadores de horrores" a nivel casi mundial. Al igual que en estas sociedades, entre los miembros del Bureau se encuentran profesores universitarios, como Kate Corrigan [6][8] o Anastasia Bruntsfield [3], individuos con poderes psíquicos, como Liz Sherman [1][7][8] o Garret Omatta [11], y seres claramente inhumanos, como Abe Sapiens [1][7][11] o el propio Hellboy.

Mignola utiliza además en sus relatos personajes clásicos de la literatura de terror. Por ejemplo, en la miniserie "Despierta al Diablo" [7] aparecen dos claros ejemplos de este tipo: Giurescu el vampiro y Roger el golem. El vampirismo se remonta a tiempos de los antiguos egipcios, asignándosele el dudoso honor de ser la primera de éstas criaturas a Lilith, la esposa que Adán tuvo antes que Eva. Giurescu es, no obstante, un vampiro en la línea del magiar wampyr, más típico de la literatura romántica. Curiosamente, en lugar de ser mordido por otro de su especie, Giurescu es resucitado de la muerte a la no-vida por otro monstruo clásico, la diosa Hécate, que no es otra que la lamia de la mitología griega. Afinando un poco más, la forma de resucitar a Giurescu es muy similar al uso que se hace en la mitología celta del caldero de Clyddno Eiddyn, que también resucita a los muertos, aunque no en estado vampírico.

Por su parte, el golem es una figura de barro animada supuestamente creada alrededor del 1590 por el rabino Low Ben Nezael para proteger a los judíos de Praga contra los ataques cristianos. Tanto en [7] como en [8] se define a Roger con el término "homúnculo", probablemente por el hecho de haber sido creado en el taller de un alquimista y no mediante la palabra sagrada shem tradicional [14]. No obstante, los homúnculos, que se atribuyen al científico alemán Paracelso (1940-1541), presentan un tamaño mucho menor y serían más parecidos a las criaturas que secuestran a Kate en [8].

Otro elemento clave en muchas historias es el fantasma según la concepción romántica: espíritus de personas muertas que aparecen en forma visible y son en general inofensivos [14]. En este aspecto, en Hellboy se trata con tipos de fantasmas: los condenados a vagar por sus acciones o por alguna maldición [6], los que dejaron asuntos pendientes [1][8] y las sombras del pasado [10].

Además de relaciones marginales con clásicos del cine de terror como 'La Noche de los Muertos Vivientes' o 'La Momia' [3], en las historias de Mignola hay múltiples referencias a relatos tradicionales. En 'El cadaver y zapatos de hierro' [10], Mignola utiliza un cuento corto del folklore irlandés, 'Teig O'Kane y el cadáver', al que añade un puñado de elementos de otras leyendas locales. Por ejemplo, en la tradición irlandesa, el Pueblo, o comunidad de las hadas, pierde la capacidad de procrear ante la incremental pérdida de fe de los humanos en su raza. A efectos de evitar su extinción, en ocasiones se mezclaban con humanos, pero lo más habitual era secuestrar bebés de sus cunas para transformarlos en hadas.

Estos bebes eran reemplazados con lo que se denominaba 'cambiantes' (changelings), un tipo de duende que presentaba el mismo aspecto que el niño y que eventualmente fingía su muerte para volver con los suyos. Los cambiantes, al igual que el resto del Pueblo, eran vulnerables al hierro.

Los duendes que aparecen en ésta historia son probablemente, de acuerdo a su apariencia, cluricauns, habituales de las bodegas y amigos de los borrachos [14]. La tradición de enterrar un cadaver antes de la salida del sol es típica de la tradición celta, ya que en caso contrario el alma del muerto quedaba atrapada vagando sobre la tierra. Juanita Dientesverdes es un monstruo tradicional de los ríos de Yorkshire que se alimenta de carne humana. Existen tradiciones similares en otros lugares, como Marga Powler, del río Tees [2]. Por último, Zapatos de Hierro es claramente un boggart.

Otras historias cortas con un fuerte componente floklórico son 'Baba Yaga' y 'Navidades bajo Tierra' [10]. En la primera se relata el primer encuentro de Hellboy con Baba Yaga, la más famosa bruja rusa que ya había aparecido brevemente en 'Despierta al diablo' [7]. Entre otras peculiaridades, vivía en una casa móvil sobre patas de pollo y volaba en un mortero para contar las cucharas de los hogares rusos. El segundo relato está inspirado en un cuento antiguo sobre una joven que encuentra bajo un arbusto unas escaleras que conducen a un palacio subterráneo, donde se enamora de un príncipe invisible. Según Mignola, el palacio le pareció un símbolo de una tumba y de ahí el componente macabro de la historia, que incluye la clásica tradición vampírica de morder a los individuos que han significado algo para la criatura.

'El ataud encadenado' [10] es otro ejemplo de historia tradicional inglesa adaptada para encajarse en la historia de Hellboy. Como curiosidad, el detalle de los ganchos que atraviesan el cuerpo de la bruja moribunda y que Clive Barker utilizaría en Hellraiser ya se encontraba en la fábula original.

Probablemente, los fantasmas chinos de 'Cabezas' están inspirados en los K'uei [14], aunque en este caso la referencia no es tan clara. 'Los Lobos de St. Augusto' [6] está inspirado en la predicación de San Patricio, patrón de Irlanda y evangelizador de dicha tierra. En su época, aún primaban las religiones celtas y existe una leyenda sobre como el santo maldijo a Verecio, rey de Gales, por reírse de sus palabras de forma que cada 7 años se transformaría en lobos [14]. Por supuesto, el rey Lykos se le adelanto unos siglos y dio origen a la palabra licantropo. 'Casi un Coloso' [8] toma como referencia 'El Coloso de Ylourgne', de Clark Ashton Smith, aunque no puede evitarse observar similitudes con el 'Frankenstein' de Mary Shelley, especialmente en la estática de las películas de James Whale.

Sea cual sea la inspiracion de Mignola, no cabe duda de que seguira asombrandonos y maravillandonos mientras Hellboy y los suyos nos acompañen.

[1] J. Byrne, M. Mignola, "Semilla de Destrucción", #1-4, Dark Horse, 1994
[2] B. Froud, A. Lee, "Hadas", Ed. Montena, S.A., 1983
[3] C. Golden, M. Mignola, "The Lost Army", Dark Horse, 1997
[4] H.P. Lovecraft y otros, "Los Mitos de Cthulhu", Ed. Alianza, 1969
[5] B. Lumley, "Los que Acechan en el Abismo", Ed. Edaf, 1992
[6] M. Mignola, "Los Lobos de San Augusto", Dark Horse Presents #88-91, Dark Horse, 1994
[7] M. Mignola, "Despierta al Diablo", #1-5, Dark Horse, 1996
[8] M. Mignola, "Almost Colossus", #1-2, Dark Horse, 1997
[9] M. Mignola, "La Mano del Destino", DHP Annual, Dark Horse, 1998
[10] M. Mignola, "The Chained Coffin and Others", Dark Horse, 1998
[11] M. Mignola, B. McDonald, D. Thompson, "Abe Sapiens: Drums of the Dead", Dark Horse, 1999
[12]Ref. Kaleidoskope Sp Mignola, 1
[13]Ref. Kaleidoskope Sp Mignola, 2
[14] M. Page, R. Ingpen, "Enciclopedia de las Cosas que Nunca Existieron", Ed.Anaya, 1986
[15] J. Robinson, M. Mignola, "Batman, Hellboy, Starman", DC & Dark Horse, 1999
_______________________________________________________________________
Everyday is Halloween! Mike Mignola and the horror genre

It’s been a while since Mignola, master or light and shadows, and his style started to shine with its own light in the comic scene. Mignola evolved his pencils to an effective, elegant and simple line and his art has been widely commented [12][13]. This essay, hence, focuses in his work as a writer and on the influence of classic horror on his stories.

After working several years for the best known companies in american comicbook scene, Mignola got the chance to create his own character subjected to more flexible conditions under Dark Horse Legend stamp, where famous authors like Frank Miller, Art Adams or John Byrne wew already working. He decided that it was time to do what he liked and, thus, Hellboy was born.

After a few short stories on the common premise “Hellboy stomps [insert your favorite monster here]”, basically published in “Dark Horse Presents”, the first long Hellboy story [1] was written by John Byrne, from an idea by Mignola himself. According to his own words, Mignola played a progressively more important role as a writer on the story than inititally planned and, from then on, took control over his own scripts. “Seed of destruction” introduces the main characters and the bases of its future development.

The most obvious reference in Hellboy with respect to classic terror is the existence of (a) Hell, as portayed in Christian religion, inhabited by demons. As usual in Sabbath [14], our hero is the child of the impious mating of a witch with one of these demons [10]. This makes Hellboy the classic character tainted by his dark side and in continuous struggle with his dark nature. This idea is quite common in current literature but can be tracked all the way back to medieval literature, when Beowulf, son of the devil and a fooled princess, consecrates his life to fight his father’s plans. This type of heroes usually inherit some special gift, but also a bloodlust that they hardly manage to control. Ocassionally, they are definitively evil from the very beginning, like in the Omen. In our case, Hellboy is not as enslaved by this kind of instincts as by his apparently unavoidable destiny as nations slayer [1][7][9], as decided by Rasputin, his summoner.

Leaving Rasputin, a historic character dating from the tsars Russia who reached some power as a holy man just to be betrayed and killed by his friend Yusopov, most influences in the basic story guideline are purely Lovecraft. It is necessary to note, though that Mignola works with an amalgam of the christian hell and Lovecraft’s cosmology. While Abe Sapiens, Hellboy’s mate, looks quite lime an atlantic merman [14], it can not be denied that Rasputin’s minions look like the deep ones, a minor race vaguely antropoid but with clear amphibian features [4]. It is important to note that Lovecraft already described the possibility of transforming these things into frogs, a fact that could explain their role in the first miniseries.

Lovecraft’s cosmogony influences can also be appreciated in Rasputin’s summoning, almost awakening some beings out of time who sleep in outer space. Apparently, their awakening would be related to the end of the world as is. Mignola makes a reference to the Seven, a number that does not match neither the five outer gods nor the twelve primigenians. Quantitetively, the seven would likely be primigenians, as the best known ones are only seven: Cthugha, Cthulhu, Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyogtha, Shudde M'ell and Tsathogghua. However, primigenians did not sleep in space but in tombs spreaded along our world. Besides, in another story [15], there is a clear invocation to Suggor Yogeroth, an ancestral being whose name is clearly an anagram of Yog-Sothoth, one of the external gods.

It is also interesting that Rasputin and his tentacled friend are found in a state that recalls one of the Necronomicon [4] best known cites: “That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die
Rasputin himself and his spells look more like a Cthulhu myths warlock than like your typical storybook wizard, appearing both in Lovecraft’s and, later, Fritz Leiber’s work.

Another reference to horror literature is the BPRD institution, an organization created to deal with paranormal events on behalf of humanity. These organizations were already operating in Lovecraft’s works, e.g. the Wilmarth foundation [5], whose members define themselves as horror hunters at almost planet level. Members of the bureau also include university professors like Kate Corrigan [6][8] or Anastasia Bruntsfield [3], psych guys, like Liz Sherman [1][7][8] or Garret Omatta [11], and unhuman beings like Abe Sapiens [1][7][11] or Hellboy himself.

Mignola alos uses classic horror characters from literature. For example, in the “Wake the devil” miniseries [7], there are two clear examples: Giurescu the vampire and Roger, the golem. Vampires gow all the way back to Ancient Egypt. The dubious honor of being the first vampire could be given to Lilith, Adam’s first wife before he married Eve. Giurescu os, nevetheless, a vampire in the line of magyar wampyr, more typical in romantic literature. Curiously, Giurescu is not turned by another vampire, but brought to his no-life by another classic monster: Hecate. Hecate, the goddess, is, indeed, a mosnter from classic Greece, the lamia. If we dig a little further, Giurescu is brought back to life by throwing him into a cauldron, like Clyddno Eiddyn in the celtic myths.

The golem is a clay figure presumedly created in 1590 by rabbi Low Ben Nezael to protect jews in Prague againts the christians’ attack. Roger is defined in [7-8} like an homunculus, probably because he has been created in al alchemist workshop and not by means of the traditional holy word shem [14]. Nevertheless, homunculi, presumedly created by Paracelso (1940-1541), are supposed to be smaller and far more similar to the creatures that kidnapped Kate in [8].

Another key element in several stories is the classic ghost: a dead person’s soul that appears in intangible state and are usually inoffensive [14]. There are different types of ghosts in Hellboy: the damned souls, who are bound to pay for their actions or for some curse [1][8], and shadows of the past [10].

If we go over marginal refernces to classic cult movies like “Night of the Living Dead” or The mummy” [3], Mignola has more obscure references to folklore. In “The Corpse and Ironshoes” [10]. Mignola uses a short irish tale, ‘Teig O’Kane and the corpse’, adding a bunch of elements borrowed from other local myths- For example, in irish stories the Fair Ones or faeries lose their breeding capacities due to the loss of belief of humans on their race. In order to avoid extinction, sometimes they bred with humans bur, more often, they stole babies from their cribs to raise them as their own. These babies were replaced by changellings, a type of fairy that had the same look than the kio and who, eventually, faked its own death to return to their own. Changellings, like their people, were sensitive to iron. Dwarves in this story were, most likely, according to their appearance, cluricauns, inhabitants of cellars and friends to drunken fellas [14}. The tradition of having corpses bried before sunrise is typical among the celts, as souls would be trapped into eternal wandering between worlds otherwise. Jenny Greenteeth is a traditional monster living in Yorkshire rivers who feed on human flesh. There are similar traditions in other places, like Marga Powler, from Tees river[2}. Finally, ironshoes is clearly a boggart, a household spirit which causes things to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame.

Other short stories with a strong folklore component include “Baba Yaga” and “Xmas underworld” [10]. In the first onw, Baba Yaga fights Hellboy for the first time. Baba Yaga is the most famous witch in russian folklore and she hsd already appeared briefly in “Wake the Devil” [7]. Among other pecularities, she lived in a hut with chicken legs and flew with a mortar to count spoons in russian houses. The second tale is inspired on a short piece on a young woman who finds a set of stairs into a subterranean world, where she falls in love with an invisible prince. According to Mignola, the palace was as symbol of a grave and, so, the story had a macabre touch, that included the traditional bite to turn the most loved ones into vampires.

“The chained coffin” [10] is another example of traditional english tales tailored into Hellboy. As a curiosity, the hooks biting into the old witch’s body, later used by Clive Barker in Hellraiser, were already written into the original fable. Probably, chinese ghosts in “Heads” are freely inspired in the K’uei [14}. “Wolves of St August” [6] are inspired in St Patrick, the best known irish saint who evangelized the island. There is a legend on his travels when he met welsh king Verence and cursed him for laugthing at his words: he would become a wolf every 7 years [14]- Of course, king Lykos did the same a few centuries before and gave birth to the word “lycantrhopus”. “Almost Colossus” [8] inspires on Clark Aston Smith’s “The colossus of Ylourgne”, even though it is impossible not to observe similarities with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as portrayed by James Whale.

Whatever is inspiration, might be, there is no doubt that Mignola will keep amazing and astonishing usas long as Hellboy and his friends walk among us.

Why the Grinch stole Easter ...

2008-03-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

Or I wish he had! Damn spanish Easter! It might look interesting the first few times, when you don't have to live it every year but try to walk the city center during this week and you'll see! All these procesiones have to cross the same streets at the same time, effectively cutting them from 6 pm to 1 am. I had to walk the green line in the picture to get home after I got trapped before in the center by several procesiones (see red lines) all competing to get the best walkthrough.

And then, all these people who had not gone to church since baptism crying on the streets, shouting and telling you to be respectful and just stay there until the whole crowd is gone. That's education (and, why not, religion) for you these days :P Today I had a creep short enough to not reach my chin and 45 kg average telling me that I could not move through as rudely as he could. It took me all I had to just not punch him out of my way, something that was looking easier by the moment. Yet, the day is still young ...

Granada Comic Con

2008-03-05T05:36:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Granada held the local comic convention in Armilla. This convention is not very large, but it's been there for a while and this year was particularly interesting regarding guests: Jill Thompson, Juan Jimenez, Brian Bolland, Azzarello, Phil Jimenez and Carlos Ezquerra, among others. They were all extra-cool also, and I walked out of the place with three Wonder Woman sketches and a spooktacular Scary Godmother. I also kept a special place in my heart (or maybe another organ, :D) for Cosplayers, who usually give the show. I'm not particularly fond of manga, so my big prize this year went to the Dungeon & Dragons group, all dressed up with unicorn and everything :D:D- The best contumes, though, were probably Sweeney Todd and breadmaker, old friends, who also posed perfectly for pictures and were probably (like it or not) the most shot people in the place- Many happy returns!

Holmes v1 finished and v2 in the oven ...

2008-02-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

After watching House for a while, one gets the urge to read back old Holmes' novels, if only to find out how faithful our Greg is to the original character (BTW, if anyone out there knows who Cuddy is in the books, I'm dying of curiosity here, dudes) I've finished the first set of novels this last week (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes) and will start on the second soon. It turns out that it's like CSI for me, I just guess who's behind everything in the first fee pages but don't have the nerve to prove it, so I just sit and watch. Not much mental exercise for me, it seems :(
All in all, I just found out that Holmes and House are even more similar than I thought at the beginning (and, yep, I noticed at first glance that they both live in 221B), plus in the novels it's also never lupus :P
What to read now, what to read ...

Ow, the horror ...

2008-02-24T12:19:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'm growing exigent with the years, but where are scripts when you need them? The last movies I have seen had none, and, ok, we have just finished that writers' strike, but it was mostly about TV series and those seems okay to me...
Film 1: Jumper. How can something with so much money in it be so bad? And I'm the first to acknowledge that Christensen is kinda cute but, unlike Orlando Bloom, who has just two expressions, he only has one! Jumper makes you wish you had the same power that Christensen, if only to jump out of the cinema and into anything less boring, like thr wedding video of your cousin in Ibiza. Scifi films must be careful to keep the rules they've establish themselves for the sake of credibility, but here they don't even care for that. There is no story apart from, hey, I've got these cool powers and I'll enjoy myself. It would be better if there were no dialogues either. Those last lines with Christensen going "so I am a jumper" (dramatic pause) "and you are one of them" (another, longer, dramatic pause) Pleeeeeeaseee! They also make the same error that independence day, daylight for our flat earth all along (except in Japan, it is always night in Japan, of course). If you want to lose your money and 90 minutes of your life, suit yourself. Otherwise ...

Now, on DVD, we go to spanish movie The Abandoned, which is a good show of how spanish people can do movies as bad and boring as the rest. Unlike good flicks like Darkness, or tolerable ones like El orfanato, this one is boring from the very beginning. The director says he wanted people to spend a bad time for the whole film and he gets it,but not for the reasons he thought. It goes about a woman who goes back to a farm in Russia when her biological parents die and finds out she has a brother and also that the farm is quite haunted (but in a boring way) Lots of Silent Hill (another little jewel, like this one) like-dumps and few light and you get a movie. I don't even recall what the rest was about because I slept through some parts, I'd only say that they both die and save you from suffering through this flick all along.

Finally, 30 days of night was sort of nice, even if only because the comicbook was a bluff in my opinion. Vampires look just like in the comicbook also and the town gets a pretty scary look. Just in case someone wants to know, the story goes about the village most in the north of the US (Barrow, Alaska), where the sun sets for 30 whole days in winter. At some point, vampires realize that and prepare a banquet-party over there, First they isolate the village and then they attack. I think it is nice in the film that they remove the email vampire organization part and put instead the initial vampire attack which was not in the book (probably because it would have been either too tiresome to draw or maybe it was and I could not find it among all those undefined paint splashes). Time passing gets a bit unrealistic and vampires are not very savvy, but, all in all, the flick was okay.

I like to movies-movies ...

2008-02-04T04:12:00.000-08:00

Okidoki, so here are the latest news on the movies I've seen these last weeks. Minor spoilers ahead!

First of all, we go to Alex de la Iglesia's Oxford Murders. Good filming and all, but not too interesting plot, some Deux ex Machina (Leonor Watling practically find the solution herself and does not even have to sing :P) and a slow starting. I think I was expecting something more after "La comunidad", specially with all the advertising this movie had. It's entertaining, though, if you try not to think about maths as Da Vinci Code is entertaining if you know nothing about heresy, Leonardo's painting and criptography. Anyway, I'm kind of partial to action flicks or Sherlock-like mysteries so pay no attention to my opinion on this ...

Cloverfield! This one, I really liked! Same structure as REC, but far more entertaining. It looked like old survival films with Heston and friends and FXs were amazing! Plus the monster is really scary, as they show only minor parts of it most of the time. Slow start, but perfect tempus and well tied end. What are you doing reading this? Go watch the film!

Oh, and I also read, even though I don't usually post about it. This is the last book I've finished (I'm now back to Sherlock Holmes, House made me nostalgic): Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith. It is about how Winter falls in love with young witch Tiffany Achings. Even though we've got the major ingredient for the book to be in my list (Granny Weatherwax), all in all, it didn't make it. I find books about Tiffany a bit too serious and introspective, quite different from the busy, messy pacing of the rest of the Discworld Universe. Anyway, any Pratchett is better than most authors for me, so as long as he writes, I read. BTW, the new book of exerts from Discworld is really a nice edition ...

So this is all for now. See ya soon, guys!

Shameless advertising here!

2008-01-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

This last friday my cousin has presented his new work in Granada, around 70 paintings of places all around the province. If you happen to be around the place, it is really worth a visit.

At last! A movie I liked this year!

2008-01-21T03:58:00.000-08:00

I'm talking here about Hard Candy, a movie that mostly takes place inside a house, has almost no FX and there are just 3-4 players around, mostly 2 all the time. I'm not commenting anything on this movie, because it is better if you don't know a priori what it is all about. Just as a hint, it starts with child molesters. The best part of the movie is, in my humble opinion, the amazing work of the main actress, young Ellen Page. It is already on DVD and I did not even notice when it was on screen, but, if you've got stomach, I'd surely recommend it.

Another nice watching this weekend -I'd not say surprise because everyone had recommended it- was IT Crowd, about the guys (and girl) in the computer department of a big company. It is cliché gone nuts, and every episode was funnier than the previous one. I thought I could not laugh anymore after Richmond's introduction, how nuts can the script people be :D:D:D Looking forwards to next season.

I'll go into Rome season 2 next, now that my Scrubs DVDs are almost over ..

Que cutre es el cineeeee

2008-01-14T03:22:00.001-08:00

Pues ya de retorno de las navidades, los turrones, los empachos y las gastroenteritis y pasando mas por el medico que un coche viejo por la ITV (que pena haber caducado, con lo que yo he sido ...), aprovecho para dejar la cronica cinematografica de estos dias. Poco he visto y menos que tendria que haber visto, porque vaya falta de guiones de que peca Hollywood, y vale que estan de huelga de bolis caidos, pero es que hay cosas que claman al cielo. Mis dos ultimas grandes adquisiones visuales, "Soy Leyenda" y "Alien vs predator 2". Despues de esto, mas de uno pensara que me merezco lo que me he tragado y, si no, a ver pelis de directores checo-albaneses con apellidos impronunciables, pero es que antes la accion tambien tenia su aquel. O quien no recuerda el Alien 1 o el primer Terminator.

Al Will Smith voy a terminar por tomarle odio mortal, y eso que el pobre hace lo que puede. Ya solo lo perdono porque en todas sus pelis enseña abdominales. El final de Soy Leyenda es para darle de palos a los guionistas y mas al Will por tonto del c**lo. Ver para creer. Por cierto, espero que no le hayan pagado mucho a los de los efectos por ordenador en la peli. Unos recortables de mutantes movidos como marionetas y los leones de los click de Famobil hubieran cantado menos. La peli mas aburrida no puede ser, salvo el repullo ocasional tipo tia con pelo en la cara de las pelis japonesas, acompañado del cha-chan de la BSO, por si te has dormido en medio. En fin, cualquier parecido con el libro de Matheson es pura coincidencia.

Y ahora el segundo peliculon. Si bien Paul Anderson es uno de mis directores de cabecera, he decidido evitar todo lo que produzca y no dirija. Tenia que haberlo hecho despues de Resident Evil 2, pero una no escarmienta y le di un voto de confianza por Soldier. Pues no. AVP1 era mas bien simplona, pero tenia su encanto, con unos personajes majetes que van cayendo uno por uno, y ese entorno antartico-gigeriano y su historietilla de trasfondo. AVP2 no tiene ninguna de esas cosas. De hecho, no tiene nada de nada quitando a Michelle la de 24 que podia haberlo arreglado todo desde un principio llamando a Jack Bauer. No he visto semejante vacio de guion desde el Proyecto de la Bruja de Blair y eso que en medio me he tragado cosas como Historia de Ricky o La Cosa X del Espacio Exterior. La peli se basa en producir una especie de Alien con rastas que viene del Predator pardillo infectado en la peli anterior y que, como todos los aliens que se salvan de chiripa en todos los filmes, tiene capacidad de reproducirse. Con tanta reina, el planeta alien debe ser como la jaula de las locas esa. El rollo es que se cae a la tierra al lado de un pueblo y lo masacra, con la ayuda de un Predator estilo Sr Lobo de Pulp Fiction que viene a arreglar el entuerto. Al mismo tiempo te presentan un puñado de personajes que te dan exactamente igual y que van matando sin pena ni gloria hasta que al final se salvan los que ya sabiamos que se iban a salvar. Lo mejor, los tres segundos del final, dedicados a los frikis hard-core. El resto, no pagueis por verlo, amiguitos.

REC, o corta, niño, que vienen los zombies

2007-12-17T05:42:00.000-08:00

A ver, a ver ... Que he visto ultimamente ... Asi, a bote pronto, me acuerdo de Beowulf, molona, si se ve en 3D IMAX, Stardust, que no esta mal como cuento de hadas, First Snow, que me aburrio soberanamente, y, el jueves pasado, lo ultimo de Balaguero y Paco Plaza, REC. REC es como la version española (y bastante mejor, afortunadamente) del proyecto de la bruja esa de Blair, donde 3 americanos se van al bosque sin una mala muda de calcetines pero con la XBox para enchufarla en un arbol o algo, y alli que se pierden entre cuatro matojos. En este caso, hay un par de reporteros de cadena local esperando a que pase algo en un parque de bomberos para ganarse el sustento cuando reciben un aviso de un bloque de vecinos como el de Aqui no hay quien viva pero en Barcelona. Una vez que entran, sanidad, actuando rauda como nunca se ha visto, les chapa el bloque por amenaza de zombies descontrolados, pero, como buen cuerpo de administracion, no les dice na de na ... y alli que se encuentran ellos, en amor y compaña con los zombies y los vecinos, que no se sabe que es peor, camara al hombro y a grabar como unos profesionales.

Sera porque despues de Darkness esperaba mas del Balaguero, pero la peli no me mato. Se dejaba ver y tal, pero era algo lenta al principio y bastante repetitiva y la mayoria de los sobresaltos son estilo china pelua y blancuzca de esas que salen en el terror asiatico. En fin, algo que ver mejor en casa delante del DVD y con las luces apagadas, imagino. Aunque solos en la sala como estabamos tambien tenia su puntito, claro ...

Viva Las Vegas

2007-11-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

Here I was, with nothing else to do besides the usual ton of reports, scripts and lessons so I thought to myself, There! I've got a weekend left this month, why not fly to Las Vegas? Sounded good, I had never been there and it still had not gone to the point of Resident Evil Extinction. And, also, it happened to be in the way to my next forced destination.

The stop and New York implied, as usual, to wait for a delayed plane. Nevertheless, we got to Las Vegas on time to see all the lights on. Boy, it looked like a theme park! We had managed to get a hotel close to The Strip, the Palace Station. It was okay, bur close is not enough in the US! Crossing the street is an issue even if you are not a chicken. The next morning it took us almost one hour to reach the Wynn and a little less, but a lot more of adventures to get back (including fence jumping and what not) , so we stuck to the hourly hotel shuttle service afterwards. After extensive walking, we did not see half the casinos, but I already decided that I preferred the ones with indoor skies, like Venetia, Paris or Planet Hollywood. Food was not particularly cheap -as reported by some friends- but portions were HUGE, so I would have gained a few pounds had I not walked so much those days.

I booked sunday for a trip to Grand Canyon, but it was somewhat dissappointing except for the Joshua Trees (go, U2!). I did not get the chance to walk too much, everything was so controlled that it looked less real than Las Vegas itself. Even the helicopter drive and the skywalk looked like some cheap attraction, but maybe I was expecting too much of the experience. All in all, I stick to the crevases in Iceland. And food was particularly ghastly. Along with casino hopping (I do not play, I'm too obsessive to put myself into temptations), I decided to go to as many attractions and shows as possible, and believe me, in Las Vegas deciding where to go is not as easy as it seems. There are these boots where you can buy tickets at half price if you wait for the queue and have no specific show in mind, so we went to Le Cirque du Soleil (Zumanity), the knight show at Camelot, the roller coaster at New York, New York, the pirates at Treasure Island, the acrobatics at Planet Hollywood and I'm sure I'm missing something, but it is okay. And, on top of it all, we found all clichés are true, from the dancing fountains at Bellaggio to guys in Elvis suits and people in front of coin machines that no longer carry cups of cents but credit cards in a chain. And big limos full of shouting blondes! I even bought a rock guitar handbag for my sis! Wouldn't mind going back sometime :)

Exercise is ... healthy?

2007-11-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

So they told me, so they did. So many years on the run and I get to go back home in blue. And, believe me, I do not bruise easily :P

This are three pictures of my most recent sport acquisitions (not acquired at the same time, thankfully). Don't worry about it, though, they do not hurt ... much

Ipod list on october

2007-10-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

Fighter (Christina Aguilera)
The kill (30 seconds to Mars)
Tourniquet (Evanescence)
Prayer of the refugee (Rise Against)
Koppelia no hitsugi (Noir)
I suggest (Marlango)
Dance me to the end of love (Madeleine Peyroux)
You're speaking my lenguage (Juliette and the licks)

Watching inconsequential things ...

2007-10-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Yep. I don't like profound, intellectual flicks, I'm not that deep myself. Hence, I've decided to watch anime for a while and see where it goes ...

This week, I'm partial to:

Noir

Basically, this is about a renowned assassin, Mireille Bouquet, who is contacted by a mysterious girl who claims to have forgotten about her past. All she knows is that she is named "Noir" and that she has amazing skills to kill and no trace of emotion when doing it. The girl asks Mireille's help to find out who she is, as their pasts seem to be linked somehow. Mireille agrees, but she warns the girl that, after everything is settled, she will have to kill her (quite unlikely, as soon the mysterious girl becomes her only friend). Both women start to work together as Noir, only to find out that an ancient organization known as the Soldats are behind their trace and that another lethal woman who claims to be the real Noir is toying with them. This is as far as episode 13 goes without spoiling too much of the fun. Action scenes are neat and the argument is not too complex. Characters are quite nice and animation is elegant. The best, though, is the amazing soundtrack and, specially, the main theme "Kopperia no Hitsugi".

X Clamp
This one is swords and fantasy. I'm just starting with the battles, but as far as I've watched, it goes like this. The Apocalypsis is coming. The main character, Kamui, seems to have a power beyond anything known on Earth. He is supposed to choose between being a sky dragon and saving Earth or an Earth dragon, a day X in 1999. If he decides the first, he'll join the seven seals. Otherwise, he'd join the seven angels. While the first ones believe that Earth is worth saving, the angels would rather have it destroyed so that something new, and possibly better, could start. Kamui has suffered a lot and lost everything, so he is unsure about which path to take, specially as both parts try to attract him to their sides. The only thing he is attached to are his best and only friends, Kotori and Fumaa. However, as soon as he chooses one side, his antagonist will be born, with equal force and a different alignment. And whatever he chooses, he will lost what he values more. This anime is quite fun and all characters are pretty interesting and original. It takes a while to start with the action, but moves pretty fast afterwards.

Maybe I'll go back to Bleach some time soon ...

Have you ever been in Bergen?

2007-10-10T04:18:00.001-07:00

B&W ink rulz!!

Figure out where I was last august ...

2007-10-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

Far away from home and ignoring what was ahead ...

A bit slow on the taking ...

2007-10-05T08:42:00.001-07:00

... but today's conclusion, boys and girls, is that only two creatures may offer pure, unconditional love: dogs and kids. Just choose your pick; any other is basically selfish, non-constant and highly conditional.

Cold, cold islands and sudden bullfighting

2007-09-27T09:37:00.000-07:00

Follow the three intrepid travellers (now thinner in body and temper) all the way to the
West of Scotland. A brand new issue in my absurd adventures in UK.

Mom has a new friend ...

2007-09-12T04:43:00.000-07:00

Meet Yoruichi, neko-san. I've always liked black cats, BTW ...

Somehow it seems appropriate today ...

2007-09-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

Two quick Bleach pencil sketches I felt like uploading today.

Lakes, monsters and very weird luck

2007-09-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

And now, after summer break, on with the adventures in UK during my Interrail. This time, Edimburg and everything after!

40 now and on the go ...

2007-09-04T04:40:00.000-07:00

Yep! Back from Egypt this morning and I've visited 40 countries thus far! A friend sent me this gizmo to plot in red the countries I've been to and I decided to give it a go:

Africa is mostly marked as From here there'd be monsters and Asia is pretty large to cover, but not bad, huh? Mostly because US is large, but only three countries and I've been to all three of them, even though only to four or five cities :P

Anyway, there's still time :)

Amalfi in June

2007-07-26T01:18:00.000-07:00

Been there, drank limoncello, ate the ice cream and did the sketckes :)
Save as Draft

Ipod list on July

2007-07-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

3 Doors Down: Kryptonite
Fort Minor: Remember the name
Jimmy Eat World: Pain
SR-71: Goodbye
Lullacry: Crucify my heart
Evanescence: Everybody's fool
Three days grace: On my own

Up, up, up, north we go ...

2007-07-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

This is issue 2 in the Crissover in UK series. Enjoy!

My IPod playlist on June

2007-07-11T01:27:00.001-07:00

New additions to my top compilation this last month:

-Pitch black emotions (Lullacry)
-I hate everything about you (Three days grace)
-I suggest (Marlango)
-The hem of your garment (Cake)
-Breathe today (Flyleaf)
-Ordinary Day (Dolores O'Riordan)

Mom's day

2007-07-10T04:54:00.001-07:00

Today is my mom's day, so here comes a picture taken some (...welll, many) years ago of mommy and myself. Happy day, mom!

Inter-railing in UK!

2007-06-06T02:08:00.000-07:00

Because all of you demanded it (well, only Javi demanded it, but you get the idea) ...
The first chapter in a brand new series on my (absurd) life!
Faraway places, staring swordfights (almost), magic spells (jinxs, more likely) and ... no prince in disguise, but bullfighting!

Follow the misadventures of Cris and her friends in ... London

Jaws!!

2007-03-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

What would you do in a dive if suddenly you met a shark? I had guessed I'd just faint. Guess again. Luckily, my boy was just a black tip, but it was starting to get annoyed ...

This time is kids all along!

2006-12-25T04:04:00.000-08:00

It has been some time since I posted pics of my nieces and nephew, so, since it is Xmas, here are my kiddies. Merry Xmas to all!

Journey to the center of Earth

2006-10-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

"In Sneffels Joculis craterem quem delibat Umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende, Audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges. Quod feci, Arne Saknussemm"
or, in plain english
"Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jokul of Sneffels, which the shadow of Scartaris touches before the kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth; I have done this, Arne Saknussemm"
This is the beginning of Verne's famous book and a personal favorite of mine since I was like 6. Axel and professor Lidenbrock travel to Iceland to reach the Snaefell. They reach the volcano in late June only to find that is has not one but three craters. Rereading Saknussemm's message they conclude that the passage to the centre of the Earth is through the one crater the shadow of a nearby mountain peak touches at noon. However the text also states that this is only true for the last days of June and for the next days, with July rapidly approaching, the weather is too cloudy for any shadows.
Cloudy would be the word, as this is what I found at the summit of the crater in mid august:

No shadow and no crater (unless you were somehow careless while walking around). The best part was going all the way up with a snowbike, that turned out to be harder to control than expected, but fun, anyway, when you sped up.
The Snaefell is situated on the most western part of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. Sometimes it may be seen from the city of Reykjavík over the bay of Faxaflói, at a distance of 120 km. People also think the volcano to be a culminating point of special powers. The area is also believed to be a frequent landing pad for visitors from outer space (which could not be seen in the mist either :P)

My brand new nephew

2006-09-21T01:17:00.000-07:00

And future godson! :)
Isn't he sweet?

The 2006 summer collection

2006-09-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

It has been commented that I do not dress up to the ocassion, so I'm proving with this post that, indeed, my guardrobe includes anything a proper lady needs to enjoy her summer holidays. Here we go ...

Ever ready for transportation and about to kiss the driver (fortunately, I was quicker than him) and proving I watched James Bond against Dr No when I was a kid-

Here, ready for a peaceful walk after tea, a short stroll in a more shadowy environment.

Ready for a row in the river and
two driving garments for well prepared ladies.

And, finally, comfortable model to go to the countryside and a sailing and swimming suit. It's summer, after all!

I just found these very old sketches about comic drawing ...

2006-06-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

... back from the year I first read Harry Potter. I still think the characters look cute (for a rough sketch, at least), so I decided to post them here. Good reading!

It's amazing what people can do

2006-06-15T02:50:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of this guy from now on. Seriously, he improves the film! Watch the video in:
Weird Al Yankovic: The saga begins

Down, down under

2006-05-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

I spent the first half of may in Australia and a wise use of time, planes and credit cards (ok, in this case, a reckless use of) gave me the chance to visit the Red Centre, Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney. All these places turned out to be quite different and charming in their own way. But first, I had to spent more than 24 hours in the sky and a good deal of time in the airports lobbies. Lucky me I was not alone. At least in the airports because somehow I managed to sleep most the way. Advantages of my low tension I guess.

My first stop was Uluru, in the middle of nowhere. The closest place minimally inhabited around was Alice Springs, 5 and odds hours away. After walking around Ayers Rock, realizing that there's nothing else around (but the Olgas, obviously) and thay everything is terribly expensive in the resorts, we hired a 4x4 and drove to the desert. Flies can be a real nuisance and we had to do with hat nets, but the weather was mostly okay and we even managed to walk the Kings Canyon. After that, we even had time for a camel ride, but just because I really, really asked to the person in charge of bookings. The swimming pool in the hotel was a nice detail, even though the water was dead cold. Spiders were not ...

Some plane hours afterwards, I was in Cairns, ready for a dive. We had a three dive-trip to the Great Coral Reef and a snorkeling escapade to the Green Island, a small chunk of tree covered land surrounded by turquoise waters. I met a bunch of tropical fishes and some turtles, but the winner of the day was an intense red mini-fish that tracked me all the way. Plus I'm not sure that Marlin found his son Memo...

We somehow found time as well to visit the rainforest in Kuranda. I found the skyrail a bit of a bluff, as it simply moves you from one point to another, but does not give entry to the forest. Anyway, it was a curious canopy. We also did a short travel in a vehicle that could go through water as well, a DUCK, they called it. And we learnt that some plants might be more dangerous than a great white!

Cairns is also a very interesting and lively little town, with lots of nice places to eat and activities at all times. It has a free huge swimming pool by the sea were people sing, dance and make shows. We did not, in fact, spent much time in the city, but it was well spent anyway.

Our next jump was all the way to Melbourne as we had work there. Melbourne is mostly a big city with a victorian, clean, nice center, a bit like New York, but much tidier and green. It has a load of modern architecture and amazing one, it is. I loved the main square, with all those beautiful and strange buildings that looked so different from day to night. We had not much free time there, but we managed to do part of the Great Ocean Road and had a first contact with koalas, that mostly looked all the time like I do when I've just woken up, the poor things. In the road, we dedicated some time to the London Bridge and the 12 Apostles, but, as usual, light had no mercy and we missed a large part of the landscape.

Our final stop was Sidney, a really lively city crowded with people looking for fun but tidy and clean at the same time. It was quite a surprise to find that XXX places were located close to conventional bars and pubs, for example. The opera house is far more impressing in person than in pictures. We did the boat trip around the bay at sunset (the last one) and we are pretty sure that was the best time to sail. We also visited the Aquarium, to safely see the sharks and pay a visit to Marlin and Dori. After our dose of city life, we drove to the Blue Mountains, practically a neighbourhood of Sydney, and hiked around the Three Sisters for a day. Finally, we drove to a Wildlife Park to hug koalas and pursue colored birds. All in all, a well spent time :)

And yet another baby ...

2006-04-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

Here's Hugo, my (thus far) only nephew. And he has Juan's big green eyes. If I ever have kids, I'll have to work hard to be up to the standard :P

Did you know Minas Tirith actually exists?

2006-04-13T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well, not exactly, but Rocamadour, in the centre of France, really does the trick. It only needs a few nazguls soaring above ...

The Comic Convention at Granada (2006)

2006-03-14T01:33:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, the yearly comic convention at Granada was held. Leaving aside the usual guests (who probably come on their own to have tapas and go out at night in the city), like Kevin Taylor or Lance Took, the spanish friends of the organizers, like Cels Piñols or Kenny Ruiz, and the guys noone has ever heard about like Mike Collins, they only brought Purita Campos (you need to be older than 25 to know her work, but she is good, mind you) and, thanks God, Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai, nice as ever, who compensated for the 2 EUR that you had to pay at the entrance just to be surrounded by mangakas dressed in strange clothes and yielding cardboard weapons that put your head in danger at every step. In mu humble opinion, the money of the convention is progressively going more and more to the organizers and less reflected in the activities, that this year were particularly poor. Special mention to the electronic dance contest -that game where people dance according to the steps on the screen- which was held probably in the hottest -and consequently foul smelling- part of the place.

Anyway, I got my sketch from Sergio and got to see this amazing Pacman, so all in all, it was a fine day ...

LL learns new tricks

2006-03-14T01:26:00.000-08:00

Little Luci has started to do unexpected things. Now, not only she smiles and babbles and basically is cute, but also surprises us from time to time.
Lately, whenever I give her something to eat or drink, she remembers and pays back when she gets her drop of milk or some food. Here you can see her feeding me a crust of bread in exchange for a previous crumb.

Rugby match at Granada

2006-02-21T03:40:00.000-08:00

Last sunday, I went to the rugby FAR cup semifinals: Granada vs Malaga. It was sort of Celebrity Deathmatch, but without the celebrities, plus blood was quite real. I guess the doctor had the busiest day! And the best thing is that the girls still try to state that rugby is not really violent ...

A short escapade to Bremen

2006-02-14T04:10:00.000-08:00

I was in Bremen in January, and boy, it was cold! Sort of like visiting Narnia without thermal underwear!
Bremen is quite a nice place to visit, even though it was mostly destroyed during WWII. The oldest part of town has these nice, narrow gallows and pointy roofs that we associate with fairy tales and I found the most amazing shop with paper models of every plane you can imagine.
Food was not a bonus, though. Quite heavy and homogeneous. I enjoyed the typical raw meat and that was it. We also visited a Monet exhibition where we met a girl perfectly dressed as one of the pictures. And, of course, we touched the statue of the Bremen Musicians. Too bad they call that "an ass touching an ass" over there!

My younger niece is growing up ...

2006-02-14T04:07:00.000-08:00

... and still does not trust her good ol' aunt! I wonder if she somehow speaks to her sister ...

Work, work, work ...

2006-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty busy since my last entry, being the only prominent event in my life since them a weekend trip to Bremen (Germany), where the weather was so cold that I had to double my underwear. I did nothing much in Xmas either, mostly playing PS2. January so far has consisted of reading Going Postal and Thump! (from Pratchett) and starting with Straczynki's Night of the Demons, plus watching Crusade, Supernatural and 24 (season 2). I expect things get better shortly, or I'll need a change of air ...

Guess where I've been last week?

2005-12-12T01:50:00.000-08:00

Yep. Morocco. My first time in Africa, as well. I went there with some friends via plane to Melilla (BTW, how expensive can such a flight be!) and rented a car to do a round trip. The itinerary was -more or less erratically- Nador-Fez-Volubilis-Meknes-Fez-Azrou-Taza-Debdou: basically, the north.

North Morocco is quite similar in landscapes to Andalusia. The best part to visit would be the west, where the ancient cities are. It would also be better to rent the car in Spain and cross via Ferry, as it is cheaper and leaves you in the interesting bit of the country, but they would not rent us a car for Morocco. Which I fully understand after seeing how they drive.

2005-12-12T01:48:00.000-08:00

A warning to the traveller. In popular places, you will not be able to be left alone by the local "guides", guys who pursue you all the time, move you around the medina -whether you like it or not- and try to make you buy at their relatives' shops. They are unavoidable, so better pick one and go with it. But try your best to set your own pace even if it means forgetting about manners. The must sees are the mosques, the tanneries and the zocos.

2005-12-12T01:45:00.000-08:00

Volubilis turned out to be an interesting surprise: a full roman village in the middle of the mountains. The conservation of the place was not too good, but they had the most amazing color mosaics almost everywhere! Too bad I did not had Augmented Reality googles to check how it was in the past. Not even an illustration in the ruins, either.

Food was mostly okay, but water was obviously not.

Mamma mia!

2005-11-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

I'm back from my yearly weekend in Madrid (I hope to go back soon, though, many things to do, many things to do ...) Basically, I did the same I do every year, some shopping, walk the city, meet some friends and go to the theater. This year I watched Mamma Mia. I like musicals very much so it was only to be expected that I liked this one. However, it was better than I thought (not the best I've seen, though, but enjoyable, nevertheless). The only black point: translations of the songs to spanish was not that good, but it possibly could not have been done better. On the good side, the lead singer, Nina, has an amazing voice. She overacted a bit, but it did not matter. The best, though, were her friends, Marta Valverde and Paula Sebastian. Both women were amazing and extremely funny, not only in their renderings of Chiquitita, Dancing Queen, Take a chance on me, does your mother know and, of course, where they sing as Donna and the Dynamos, but practically every time they appeared on stage. Looking forward to their future works!

Mamma mia! in spanish

The corpse bride

2005-11-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

I watched this movie last wednesday and I liked it a lot. Visually, it is amazing how they can get such results without virtual reality. I particularly loved the butterfly effect at the end ('m not telling in case I spoil it for potential viewers). Emily manages to look fragile, scary and funny, while Victor is mostly unsure. Plus the rest of the characters are so well (er) characterized that they do not even have to open their mouths to realize what their personalities are. I also loved the fact that the land of the dead is far more colored than the Victorian UK. The storytelling leaves that bittersweet sensation afterwards that is so typical in Burton's movies, like Big Fish. The story seems to be based in a 16th Century Jewish folk tale, but it is definitely very Burton-like. The corpse bride reminds me of a Nightmare Before Xmas in the clash of different worlds implied in the plot, but it is far more serious and, in general, less crazy. Still, I can not decide which one I like more ...

2005-11-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Plus I'm seriously considering to re-watch Wallace and Grommit unless something comes fast on-screen. BTW, Helena Bonham Carter seems to be at ease with animation!

Let's go to the movies!

2005-11-03T04:44:00.000-08:00

The brothers Grimm: Quite nice, well paced, fun and a bit stranger than Terry Gilliam has us used to, but nevertheless enjoyed the ride. The Grimms are a couple of con-artists that acquired some fame as ghost-hunters. However, luck goes tough when they have to face the very real danger of the mirror witch, who is kidnapping the kids of a small german village. I'd have given more lines to Monica Bellucci, noone like her to play the evil queen, but I liked the film.

Wallace & Gromitt: Shiny. Loved the rabbits and enjoyed the faces Gromitt put all the time. The giant vegetables were cool as well and I loved the homages to the Universal horror movies.

The dark: Not bad, but not that good either. A typical ghost story that drinks of welsh folk tales. Atmosphere and actors are okay (BTW, where did Maria Bello come from? She is everywhere these days!) Could have been better, but the storyline has many cracks. Sean Bean does not do much in the film and Paul Anderson only plays producer (as in the infamous Resident Evil 2).

More sketches

2005-11-03T04:42:00.000-08:00

Nothing particular this week, so I thought I'd upload an sketch instead. Yep, still stuck to Firefly ...

On DVD: Azumi 2

2005-10-19T01:35:00.000-07:00

But not as good as the first by far. Swordfight is less thrilling and slower, characters are less defined and the bad guys are boring and histrionic. The final battle was dissappointing. No real plot, also. Do I have to tell you I did not like it? Save your 1.5 hours for something better ...

Cinema thi weekend: Fragile

2005-10-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Even though the only Flockhart's performance I've liked thus far was Futurama's "When Aliens Attacks", I liked Darkness too much to not go watch Balaguerò Fragile. The film focuses on a children hospital, about to be abandoned, where only 8 kids remain because of room problems in the central one. Something in there is also trying to keep them inside, though. Callista is a nurse who lost a patient because of negligence and had a bad time trying to get over it. This is her very first job after the events and the hospital being haunted does not help much. However, she makes a friend in a sick, orphan kid who seems to know all about Charlotte, whomever is behind the strange phenomena. Curiously, this is not exactly a horror film. I liked Darkness better, but this one is okay, I guess.

Serenity at Sitges

2005-10-11T04:46:00.000-07:00

So what did I do with my time this weekend? Dinner with friends ... check, scuba diving with lobsters ... check, lunch at seaside ... check. And, of course, travelling to Sitges to watch Serenity. I did not bring my browncoat, though, it was still hot :)

Guess where I am?

The arrival was ok and we had this big, big poster of the movie with River unleashed at the door. We had to wait there to enter, but things went pretty fluid and we had the chance to meet the big, bad shark. It's the 30th anniversary of Jaws, after all.

This is such a quiet and peaceful place ...

Then, we had to go through the tipically boring talks of organizers and producers before, finally, Whedon, Fillion and Glau walked the corridor. I was lucky enough to be at the corridor end of the first row, so I even watched Whedon jokingly pushing Fillion when they climbed the stairs (too bad he did not fell, I was just behind :P)

I was soooo slow ...

Unluckily, they only had 5 minutes talk and neither Fillion, nor Glau said anything. Maybe they had some activity with the journalists later, but we had no access to that. Finally, we managed to watch the film.

Serenity is pretty much what was expected: a brightly written story with shiny dialogues and good acting. The plot is well tied up and could be a closing to the series (though, of course, most of us expect it is not), plus it includes most whedonesque tricks to keep you holding your breath until very much the end of the story. It would have fit well in the series, though, as Firefly had film quality. The cast did well, even though usually cheerful Kaylee was a bit out of character, all touchy and gloomy (she explains pretty explicitly why after 5 minutes, much to the captain regret) and ditto for Inara, who spends most of her screen time scared and out of control (of course, that was to be expected, given the plot). The rest are their usual selves. Plus River is not used in excess. Not much to comment in order to avoid spoilers to people who have not seen the film. What are you waiting for, though? :D

The big event

The descent and Serenity

2005-10-04T05:09:00.000-07:00

I watched this movie last sunday and liked it a lot. Sceptic as I am with horror movies lately, this one is basically like Dog Soldiers, a well constructed, simple and grounded flick. It focuses on a group of friends adicted to risk sports who decide to explore a cave together. The idea is to keep it easy, but the cave is not as simple as it should be and there is something more in the depth with them. This is the most I can say without spoiling the argument for people interested in watching the film, I'm afraid. More details in here

Plus Josh Whedon's Serenity is on the screen since friday!! I'll have to wait to watch this one, but not for long. Got tickets for the screening in Sitges next Sunday :)

More Serenity

2005-09-22T03:56:00.001-07:00

Only 8 days to go ...

River Tam

Zoe Warren

Karst at Sorbas (Almeria, Spain)

2005-09-22T03:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I was planning to dive, but the sea did not agree. And the second option to go deep was ...

The karst at Sorbas!
Never mind that I've never been in a cave, because of the three path options (easy, medium, hard), only the hard one was available that afternoon. We did ask how hard it was, but I'm afraid the guide did not believe us when we said we might not be fit enough.

And, at the very beginning of the cave, the guide points out an ill looking entrance and a shallow opening in the ground and asks "which one do you prefer, the difficult or the die-hard one?" and everybody points at the ground. And there I was, believing all the time it was a joke ...

...but this is actually my entry point. Hard to believe I could move through that.

2005-09-21T06:13:00.000-07:00

But this is what you get for risking your physical integrity in a reckless way: a crystal cave! Plus I only damaged my left knee and even kept strength to reach the car later :)

If you ever go to Almeria, pay the karst a visit.

Books I've managed to finish ...

2005-09-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

Busy lately, so only 2 :(
On stranger tides (Tim Powers), a quite strange pirate story with voodoo and magic all mixed up. As usual, Powers blends the action with real historic characters like Blackbeard, Ponce de Leon or quite less known Ann Bonny (main character in one of Zoe -never read anything from this woman if you and I have any likeness- Valdes' books) and gives a magical explanation to some events (like the earthquake that erased Port Royal from the planet). Part of it looks like Monkey Island, in a more serious style. Not amazing, but okay.
Ilion (Dan Simmons). I dunno why I read this one. I have read Simmon's Hyperion 4-books saga and I did not like it at all until I read the last one. As usual, Simmons makes it impossible to understand at all what is happening and develops 3 or 4 apparently unconnected threads that are too brainy for me, with all those references to Shakespeare and such. Plus, I'm afraid I'm bond to read the next one :(

I would not hate flying if I were Wonder Woman ...

2005-09-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

... but since I have to use planes, I'm doomed.

And there was I at Fiumiccino Airport, thinking that, for the first time in my life, I was not having delays neither in the go or return trip. Because, of course, they did not warn about it until it was time to move into a plane. One hour estimation. And when people protested, they seemed to be surprised and said something like "just one hour?". Yep, it could have been two or three days, go ahead, it's just MY time.

Of course, ALITALIA stands for: Always Late In Take-off All Luggage in Alger ...

So how do you make 2.5 equal to 5? Just take an Alitalia plane, kids!

Tomb raiding ...

2005-09-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

I just found this pic in my hard drive from a trip to Mexico DF. Does not look like I'm at the Museum or Archaeology, does it? In fact, I was not even alone in the picture, but that is Photoshop 4U ...