"La buena fama durmiendo"

I have no energies to read blogs, newspapers or magazines.

I have no energies to write on my blog.

But as soon as I get my energies back, I'll be rocking again.

Talk to you later! Mach's gut!

Unicycle

I gave to my Doktorvater the new version of my Dissertation, went to Paris for a congress, where I met interesting people, traveled a little bit, and finally came home in Mexico. I bought a unicycle and gave it to L, as a gift, and we made our first trials to drive it. This is my first experience, and it's cool.

This is the best video I found about the art of riding unicycles. It's a mix of ballet, ice skating and dance.

Beckham, "Hummer"

What's the difference between Beckham and "The Hummer"?

Right! They know how to survive the financial crisis. They both avoid Wall Street bullshit, and prefer to invest on gold.
Beckham listens to his favourite music on his golden iPod, while "The Hummer" kills with his Versace (sic) golden handgun.

"Muto", by Blu

Today is the last day of the Short Film Festival in Berlin, and F invited me to watch some Italian productions. There were very good ones, but the most impressive was a "real animation" (I don't know how to call it) by Blu. They are painting walls all around the world, and they completely changed my conception of that new interest I discovered this year grafitti. Take a look of "Muto" (7:26), a project which took place in Buenos Aires last year, and which has been viewed online more than 5 million times already. It's worth.

Pancho Villa, Bush-puppet

I was looking for the pic of a famous writer, whose name just escaped from my brain, who reminded me of this one of Pancho Villa, when I found another one (many indeed) of US-American soldiers sitting on Saddam Hussein's throne.

It's good that Bush is gone!

Philip Merlan dixit II

"Generally, it is true, we are inclined to think of the transition from polytheism to monotheism as being at the same time a transition from crude anthropomorphism to a purer notion of God. A middle stage, a de-anthropomorphisized polytheism, appears as a logical construction rather than a living reality. But it seems that Aristotle (and, perhaps, Plato, too) represents just this intermediary stage. It was the anthropomorphism or anthropopathism of the popular religion by which they were repelled, not its plurality of gods".

"Aristotle's Unmoved Movers" in Traditio (1946), p.28

Philip Merlan dixit

"It has been repeated so often how great an artist Plato was when compared with Aristotle that I beg leave to call to mind that even as a myth the Timaeus is often ugly or almost ridiculous. Suffice it to mention the little pegs used by the gods in order to keep man together".

"Aristotle's Unmoved Movers" in Traditio (1946), p.9.

"Lo extraordinario", por Robinson Quintero

Aquí no sucede nada extraordinario
Las rosas crecen
los muertos descansan
los niños lanzan guijarros al cielo
algunos hombres llevan regalos a sus casas

Muy a menudo no acontece nada
fuera de lo usual
Los amigos salen de fiesta
la gente se casa
unos ríen otros lloran
los ausentes escriben

Parece que todo ocurriera sin contratiempos
por estos lados
Los árboles mudan de hojas
la lluvia ensimisma
el sol sale puntual aún entre la niebla

Y los necios furiosos de hastío
empecinados comentan:
aquí no pasa nada extraordinario
hace tiempo no sucede nada extraordinario

Foto: Archivo Casasola

En la víspera del día de muertos

Guuzbourg asked some weeks ago which song would one pick for their own funeral. I had never thought about it. I sent him a couple of mails.

And now I read that I won the contest with this post!

Arendt sobre el '68

No es ni lo óptimo, ni se ajusta a lo acordado hace meses y prometido sucesivamente, pero al menos ya se pueden leer las cartas de Benedict y Arendt sobre el movimiento de los estudiantes en 1968. Aquí.

Behlín: Politics & Architecture

Last week I visited an obligatory seminar about Politics & Architecture in Berlin. Quite interesting! Just three pics which I like.

Warm sunrise in East Berlin

Alex

Axel Schultes' Kanzleramt

Ruthenian immigrant, Afghan refugee

Advancing

T took this pic last week in Washington D.C. Just perfect for these electoral times.

Astronomy

- Then don't you think that a real astronomer will feel the same when he looks at the motions of the stars? He'll believe that the craftsman of the heavens arranged them and all that's in them in the finest way possible for such things. But as for the ratio of night to day, of days to a month, of a month to a year, or of the motions of the stars to any of them or to each other, don't you think he'll consider it strange to believe that they're always the same and never deviate anywhere at all or to try in any sort of way to grasp the truth about them, since they're connected to body and the visible?

- That's my opinion anyway, now that I hear it from you.

- Then if, by really taking part in astronomy, we're to make the naturally intelligent part of the soul useful instead of useless, let's study astronomy by means of problems, as we do geometry, and leave the things in the sky alone.

Plato. Republic 530a-c

Wong Kar-wai

Last night I watched again Wong Kar-wai. T recommended me and gave me some months ago Chungking Express, and last night at F's place we gathered to watch two more films of him. There I met a Taiwan girl and her German boyfriend who are really big fans of his films, so big that they even went to see the Chungking Express fast-food bar in Hong Kong, like people traveling to Paris go to Amélie's Montmartre. They say it's in a backyard, full of people who look angry, desperate and dangerous, so they got a little bit scared, and didn't stayed longer there.

The first film of last night was Days of being wild. I didn't like it so much, although it's ok, but this morning, while thinking about it, I got the feeling I would like it more if I watch it again.

The second film was the poetic and marvelous In the mood for love. Everything is perfect in this movie! The music, the light, the photography, the dresses of the actress, the actress, the secrets left in a hole... Just perfect. I even dreamed of it.

And Wong Kar-wai has been teaching me to discover the charm of Asian girls. Excepting Puk, I never thought they could be so charming and beautiful, but these girls are proving that I was completely wrong. First came Faye Wong, and now Maggie Cheung.

This stupid week

"Everyone knows how to talk, and no one knows what to say".

Nick Hornby, A long way down, p.213.

Jackson Pollock

Fragmento de mi respuesta a un mail de G:

"Y eso de los quark democríteos y el spin epicureísta me hace recordar algo que estuve leyendo hoy, tras quedar conmocionado por la peli de/sobre Pollock: hace unos meses me empezó a interesar más intensamente, no sabía bien por qué, pero ahora lo sé: porque siempre había tenido la impresión de que era un simple escurrir accidental de la pintura sobre el lienzo, pero luego, observando algunos de sus cuadros, me di cuenta de que no, de que son perfectamente armónicos. Luego encontré lo del Blue Brain Project: el mapa del cerebro sigue la misma armonía de los cuadros de Pollock. Y hoy leo que sí, que en efecto, han descubierto un patrón común entre los fractales y sus cuadros. Inverosímil. El cuate sabía cuándo terminar un cuadro y cuándo debía seguir trabajando, e insistía en que no dejaba nada al azar. Ed Harris, que estuvo pintando casi 10 años para entrenarse para el papel, testimonia que, en efecto, no es un simple aventar la pintura así al "ahí se va".

Fotos del famoso artículo de agosto de 1949 en Life.

À bout de souffle

Today I watched the awesome À bout de souffle. I'm not an expert, but this is the most cynical, nastiest and funniest Belmondo I've seen. While watching I had to pause to write down some quotations (in Spanish, sorry):

* Lo bonito es despertarse al lado de una chica, no dormirse a su lado.

* Los sentimientos son un lujo que pocas mujeres se permiten.

* - ¿Cuál es su ambición más grande? - Ser inmortal, y después, morir.

But there are a lot of quotations which make you laugh when you read them again. I was laughing so much while watching the movie, and it had been a good preparation for my November trip to Paris.

Jean Seberg is so cute that I resist myself to believe Carlos Fuentes' account of their affaire. I like to believe she would never go out with him, not to say have a single stand. (She looked similar to the shor-haired Dolores O'Riordan of the late 90's.)

Technically, À bout de souffle marked a new era in the history of cinema with the use of cut jumps, handcameras and no studio footage.

Nobel vs. USA

In a clear sign against USA, the Literature Nobel Prize was awarded yesterday to Le Clézio. He complained some years ago against the US-American & English action in Chargos. Here is the story.

Pro Reli vs. Pro Ethik

The German Constitution says that it is mandatory to have religion class in public schools... But two years ago, the (Roman catholic, à propos) mayor of Berlin and the Senat decided that it would be better to substitute the religion class in the middle high school (7th-10th grades) with ethics classes. The arguments are basically the same we know already since 1789.

So two years ago, some believers (most of them are Roman catholics and Evangelists) started the movement Pro Reli. Last year they were collecting signatures to change this legal disposition. They prefer "free choice" between religion and ethics classes. Since there's a Kirchensteuer (church tax), I think they have the right to protest if they think this new disposition is not fair.

Last year they asked me to support them, but I didn't feel like, so I didn't give them my signature. I just thought it wasn't my call at all.

Today there's also an opposite group called Pro Ethik. They say that Pro Reli wants to cancel the ethics class -- which is not true. And they think that having children of different cultures and religion attending alltogether a common class, i.e. ethics, is much better than dividing them in order ro attend their own religion's class (Muslims, Jews, Evangelists, Roman catholics, Ortodox and even Buddhists -- which is not a religious community, but ok).

The question here is if religion and ethics are the same, or in which sense are they equivalent. As far as I know, morality is just a part of religion. So, no, I don't think they are equivalent. And as far as I can see, since 1789 we can agree that it would be better to have common values despite/beyond the religion or personal believes.

Maybe the best thing to do would be to teach all the kids ethics, and to offer the religion class to the "religious" pupils (whatever that means). This is how the things are nowadays, and what Pro Ethik argues, and defends. If the religious parents really care about religion, I think they should educate their children in a religious way at home, and, since they pay Kirchensteuern, then they should also have the support of the State. If the "religious" children have to spend two more hours at school every week, then Selbstschuld!

Last Sunday, while leaving the church, people of Pro Reli asked me to sign, and suddenly I saw myself signing without enough previously considerations. Since then I've been feeling uncomfortable, and I'm thinking very seriously to go back there and cancel my support.

* * *

Have you noticed how religions and/or religious groups have their own agenda which hardly matches with the agenda of the rest of the world? This makes me (and other people I know, who are also interested in religion) feel stupid.

Ateísmos

"(...) Pero hay que distinguir varias categorías de ateos: aquellos que creen creer en un Dios vivo y que en realidad piensan y viven como si nunca hubiera existido: son los verdaderos ateos y forman la mayoría de nuestros conciudadanos; los ateos por convicción filosófica, para los que Dios no ha muerto porque nunca existió y que, no obstante, creen en alguno de sus sucedáneos (razón, progreso, historia): son los pseudoateos; y aquellos que aceptan su muerte y tratan de vivir desde esta perspectiva insólita. Son la minoría y pueden dividirse a su vez en dos grupos: los que no se resignan y, como El frenético de Nietzsche, entonan en los templos vacíos su Requiem aeternam deo; y aquellos para quienes el ateísmo es un acto de fe. Ambos viven religiosamente, con ligereza y gravedad, la muerte de Dios. Con ligereza porque viven como si se les hubiese quitado un peso de encima; con gravedad porque al desaparecer el poder divino, sustento de la creación, el suelo se hunde bajo sus pies. Sin Dios el mundo se ha vuelto más ligero y el hombre más pesado".

Octavio Paz, "La persona y el principio" en Corriente alterna, tomo 10 de sus Obras completas, p. 567.

Feminine!

There is a wise blog which I like.

I also like the wise subtitle: "Fragile girls. Singing In French. Making Me Sigh. Any questions?".

And I also like one of the wise lines posted some weeks ago: "For people who still can’t get masculine and feminine right, come and learn it from"... and the name of a band.

So, for people who still can't get masculine and feminine right, watch this and learn it from Melissa Mars (mon Dieu!, she makes me sigh) and Louis Bertignac: Les frôleuses. Watch also a cute video and a crazy version, both with Carla B.

Lyrics:

Elles sont frôleuses, charmeuses, frileuses
Elles sont brûlantes, fondantes, cassantes, soûlantes,
Elles sont fragiles, dociles, habiles
Elles sont promesses et caresses

Elle sont aimables, gentilles indispensables,
Elles sont en elles maternelles, charnelles,
Elles sont multiples, sensibles, joueuses, flexibles,
Elles sont constantes, touchantes, grandantes,
Ardantes, charmantes, troublantes,

Na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na
Elles sont douces quand elles touchent ou quand elles s'effarouchent.

Elles sont belles quand elles mentent,
Quand elles cherchent et qu'elles tremblent,
Elles sont soupçon, soupir, frisson, peau douce sourire,
Elles sont inquiètes, soucieuses, extrêmes, exquises,
Pénibles, paisibles, nuisibles, sensibles...

Na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na

Elles sont charmes, qui désarme qui me coûte des larmes,
Elles sont voix de velours, elles veulent tous les détours,
Elles sont biches ou gazelles, emmerdeuse eternelles,
Elles sont courage...ou foutaise.

Elles sont muses éternelles ou épouses infidèles,
Elles sont longues et puis rondes, dans leurs courbes qui fondent,
Elles sont conteuses d'histoires, et des fables du soir,
Elles sont du genre à y croire...

Na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na.

Sobre el tinnitus

Desde hace meses traigo un zumbido en los oídos, sobre todo en el derecho. Dos médicos alemanes, parapetados en sus aparatos rebosantes de la más moderna tecnología, dicen que todas las piezas de mis oídos y que mi capacidad auditiva son perfectas... Pero el zumbido persiste.

Aquí algunas divagaciones sobre el tinnitus.

On drugs' uncoolness

Like always in September, these days Berlin is celebrating the Jüdische Kulturtage. This evening I went to Idan Raichel's great gig. I've listened to Idan Raichel's Project obsessively since S gave me a copy of it 13 months ago. (Actually I would prefer to be posting about Idan, but drugs are now priority.)

I was remembering last September's concert while coming back home. There I met N, a nice and pretty girl who worked (works?) as a model.

One day she told me she was on marijuana. "Why?", I asked her. "I mean: you don't need it, you care as much as Germans care about healthy food, you don't have big stress-troubles, you are doing well in college, and marijuana harms, or at least might harm, your brain". "Well, not at all, since I'm not an addict, I just smoke a little every now and then. And it's cool". (As a flashback I remembered myself the year before calling W "unjoint-cool girl", and her amazed reply: "you're the very first guy who calls me cool because of not being on joint.) I tried to explain to her that being on drugs is more stupid than cool. Impossible. "Is the drug of the intelectuals: as a philosopher you should know it".

When I think about how "cool" (sic) Europeans or US-Americans feel because of being on joint or whatever drugs they prefer, I feel totally sick. I can't even patronize them. Because of all this "coolness" flowing from Latin America to northern societies, my country has been devastated by violence and corruption.

What a week! O Bože!

This week:

0. Hand grenades exploded in a crowded square and street in Morelia while celebrating Mexico's Independence. Eight people died and 101 people were injured. Reaction from the authorities was all but effective.

1. I learned that after some months of marriage, a befriended couple of mine split.

2. A friend had an accident playing football, and he aaaalmost gets paralyzed for the rest of his days.

3. A friend of mine came out.

Just to get distressed:
4. Der Spiegel informs that in Sydney there are 1.61 women for every man.

Srpski!

Today I had my first Serbian language class! Jebekevu!

This is my first approximation to a Slavic language, so let's see if later it opens to me the doors to Russian (not in order to talk to Putin, but to read their literature)...

Some other guys have learned this language as well:

* Engels
* Tolstoi
* Goethe
* Tolkien
* Ronsard
* Mérimée
* J. Grimm
* Lamartine
* F. von Suppe
* Peter Handke
* Sir Walter Scott

How I read

I've noticed that my lecture habits have changed lately whilst reading newspapers, magazines and e-mails. I start reading the least interesting part (Finance) or letter (mail by someone I don't know), and peau à peau I move towards the most interesting (Feuilleton, Politics, mails of my girl or my fam).

Thomas Aquinas defines "hope" as the happiness /expectation of a good you're trying to attain. The Catholic Encyclopedia points out: "Hope, in its widest acceptation, is described as the desire of something together with the expectation of obtaining it. The Scholastics say that it is a movement of the appetite towards a future good, which though hard to attain is possible of attainment".

So I guess this is kind of a unconscious mechanism to expand the joy of what I'm about to read, instead of, impatiently, starting reading that in the first place.

Photo: Nikka Melt

Corintio, Ginebra

Cuentan que Nerón detuvo el proyecto de construir un canal en el istmo de Corintio, la parte más estrecha de la península del Peloponeso, porque los científicos de la época habrían pensado que, al dividirla, se hundiría, como se había hundido ya, por ejemplo, la Atlántida.

En realidad eso es un mito. Nerón mismo dio el primero palazo, antes de que 6,000 judíos se pusieran a excarvar. Lo que los científicos de la época habían observado era un desnivel entre los golfos de Corintio y Sarónico, una dificultad técnica entonces insalvable. (Curiosamente, los técnidos dieron a Napoleón muchos siglos más tarde el mismo dictamen cuando pidió que se investigara la posibilidad de construir un canal en Suez. Tardaron 50 años en descubrir el error.)

Esta semana, un alemán interpuso una demanda contra el CERN porque, aducía, el Colisionador de Hadrones originaría un agujero negro por donde todos seríamos succionados irremisible, irremediablemente. Otro paranoico, aún más pasional, amenazó de muerte a los responsables (sic) en caso de que los experimentos generaran el susodicho hoyo negro.

"Vocalise" (Rachmaninoff: Op. 34, #14)

Last December I decided that 2008 would be my personal "year of the music". After some months of going every week to the Philharmonic or the Opéra or some concerts, I had to quit due to Aristotle. Frau Dissertation is such a jealous girl!

Anyways... The most listened composition of the year is Vocalise, by Rachmaninoff. (It is a composition to be sung with just one vowel.) Here is a great arrangement for violin recorded in 1929, and directed by himself. "Rachmaninoff conducts his own arrangement of Vocalise for orchestra, in a recording from 1929. Rachmaninoff demonstrates the lyricism he expected from a performance of this piece, with the violins of the Philadelphia Orchestra using portamento to add expressiveness to the main line", quotes Wikipedia.

My favorite version is the one by Carlos Prieto on the cello, and a piano, allegedly arranged by Rostropovich and Heifetz. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find it on the web, and my internet skills are really limited, so I don't know either how to upload it. But here you will find it.

Stephanie or Jeanne?

Two great Frech-pop songs of the 80's which I like a lot. And now for the first time I saw the videos. Obviously I prefer Stephanie's (who looks a little bit like T, or somehow reminds me of her), but as a song still prefer Rouge et noir. Coincidentally, Ouragan was offered to Jeanne, but she wasn't interested in it, so it was given to Stephanie.

Voilà!

The trendiest gadget today

If Google Maps really changed our sight, eye, or however you want to put it, I just found out (perhaps I'm old fashioned, like when I posted this, drowned in amazement) the coolest sub-gadget: Google Maps' Street View.

Here is Audrey Hepburn, for instance:


Cool, yes. But of course! This opens a lot of questions about privacy. Still have to think about it...

¡Ya párenle!

Tres fragmentos de Aristóteles a propósito de la situación de inseguridad en México.

* De Diógenes Laercio o Sobre la impunidad:

Periandro fue el primero en tener guardaespaldas y en cambiar su poder por una tiranía. Y no dejaba que nadie viviera en la ciudad sin su voluntad, según lo dicen Éuforo y Aristóteles.

* De unos escolios al Andrómaca de Eurípides o Sobre el narcotráfico:

En las siguientes líneas, él [Eurípides] los zahiere [a los espartanos] por su devoción a las riquezas. Aristóteles igualmente relata esto en su Constitución de los espartanos, y añade los versos pronunciados por el dios: "El amor al dinero, y ninguna otra cosa, arruinará a Esparta".

* De Diógenes Laercio o Sobre el vil asesinato:

Cuenta Diógenes Laercio que Aristóteles tuvo que huir a Calcis porque o Eurimedonte o Demófilo lo acusaron de impiedad. Al parecer, la razones de la acusación fueron un himno compuesto a Hermias y un epigrama colocado en Delfos al pie de la estatua de Hermias. Dicho epigrama reza así:

Dedicado al hombre que nunca mancillara la inmaculada justicia
divina, asesinado por el Rey de los Persas arqueros,
no en sangriento combate a campo abierto con lanza
sino por medio de un traidor que supo engañarlo.

Foto: Paty Lu

Be careful: Books!

Checking Adriana's blog, I saw this image of Mladen Penev (check other nice variations, as well as other cool projects)...


...which made me think immediately of Nathan Coley's advice: Give up the good book | Pick up a good gun (2008)...

... which I saw in the most controversial art gallery Haunch of Venison.

In spring I went to their newest venue in the (of course!) Heidestraße with T, who took this cool pic. Notice that the card covering my face is a sample of Nathan Coley's Palace.

(And talking about guns, I posted some time ago two guys shooting their glasses like Warhol's Elvis.)

Tristram Shandy (1, I)

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly consider'd how much depended upon what they were then doing;--that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;--and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost;--Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,--I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that in which the reader is likely to see me.--Believe me, good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many of you may think it;--you have all, I dare say, heard of the animal spirits, as how they are transfused from father to son, &c. &c.--and a great deal to that purpose:--Well, you may take my word, that nine parts in ten of a man's sense or his nonsense, his successes and miscarriages in this world depend upon their motions and activity, and the different tracks and trains you put them into, so that when they are once set a-going, whether right or wrong, 'tis not a half- penny matter,--away they go cluttering like hey-go mad; and by treading the same steps over and over again, they presently make a road of it, as plain and as smooth as a garden-walk, which, when they are once used to, the Devil himself sometimes shall not be able to drive them off it.

Blue Brain Project, Jackson Pollock

Blue Brain Project is one of the most ambitious projects of neuroscience: "the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations".

Detail of Jackson Pollock's #8 (1949)
Oil, enamel, and aluminum paint on canvas
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York

Spaziergang in Zehlendorf

Last evening I walked to my videoclub. These are the spots I saw.

A crane, of course! And next to it an erotized fountain.


Kafka's last place in Berlin.


The museum which conserves the car of Eisernen Gustav (Time's article of 1928).


The first railway in nowadays Germany connecting Berlin and Potsdam (1828).


The place where Friedrich Wilhelm I (the heroe of Hegel's father) received the protestants who had to leave Salzburg because of the catholic bishop in 1731.


The only octogonal church I know (1768), and the small cementery attached to it.


A milestone on the road constructed by Friedrich The Great to connect his Berlin Palace with Sanssouci, his summer palace in Potsdam (one Prussian mile = 5,325 m) .


A bizarre Japanese fight training center.


One of the last fixed public telephones (this year 10,000 are being taken away, because mobiles make them useless).


West Berlin Ampelmännchen | East Berlin Ampelmännchen (stamp)


The little forest where a fox lives, and where I once saw a boar.

I feel like attending a real university

I was checking the Language Center of the Humboldt University for the next term, and the offer impressed me. Take a look:

12 alte Sprachen

Altarmenisch | Altirisch | Altgriechisch | Altkirchenslawisch | Altpersisch | Avestisch | Gotisch | Ivrith | Koptisch | Latein | Sanskrit | Vedisch

41 moderne Sprachen

Amharisch | Arabisch | Bahasa Indonesia | Bulgarisch | Chinesisch | Dänisch | Dari/Persisch | Deutsch | Englisch | Französisch | Georgisch | Hausa | Hindi | Irisch | Italienisch | Japanisch | Katalanisch | Ladinisch | Lettisch | Litauisch | Mongolisch | Norwegisch | Okzitanisch | Paschto | Polnisch | Portugiesisch | Rumänisch | Russisch | Schwedisch | Serbisch/Kroatisch | Slowakisch | Sotho | Spanisch | Swahili | Tadschikisch | Tibetisch | Tschechisch | Ungarisch | Uzbekisch | Vietnamesisch | Weißrussisch

Julee Holcombe, Babel Revisited (2004) | Bruegel The Elder, Tower of Babel (1525-1530)