Tear it down and move on!

Since Obelix torn down the Sphynx' nose, people have been tearing down statues of politicians in order to move on...

Sic transit gloria mundi!

Goerge Bush Jr., London (2003)

 Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow (2009)

Ferdinand Marcos, Phillipines (2002)

Vicente Fox, Boca del Río (2007)

Francisco Franco, Santander (2008)

Gaddafi, Lybia (2011)

 Hitler, Berlin (1945)

Hitler, Berlin (1945)

Lenin, Russia (1941)

Lenin, Lithuania

 Lenin

Reichsadler, Berlin (1945)

Sacred Heart, Spain (1930s)

 Saddam Hussein, Bagdad (2003)

Saddam Hussein, Bagdad

Shah, Tehran (1978)

Stalin, Georgia (2010)

Stalin, Budapest (1956)

 Stalin, Budapest (1956)

Stalin, Budapest (1956)

Reza Shah, Tehran (1953)

Lenin, Bucharest (1990)

Sex park "Love Land", China (2009)

Laszlo Toth, Rome (1972)

 

Weapons: Aphrodite A, Murakami, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry

Aphrodite A, Oppai Misil System (October 2, 1972)

Takashi Murakami (1997)

Lady Gaga, Alejandro (April 20, 2010)

Katy Perry, California Gurls (May 11, 2010)

The Beggar Boy: Murillo, Langston Hughes

If you see Murillo's painting and read Hughes' poem, it seems that time has been frozen those 300 years between both pieces of art...

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Beggar Boy (Louvre, 1645 - 1650)

The Beggar Boy

What is there within this beggar lad
That I can neither hear not feel nor see,
That I can neither know nor understand
And still it calls to me?
Is not he but a shadow in the sun-
A bit of clay, brown, ugly, given life?
And yet he plays upon his flute a wild free tune
As if Fate had not bled him with her knife!

 Langston Hughes (1922)

Jumping cars: Samuel Koch, Zoop

In December 2010, Samuel Koch was jumping some cars during a live transmission of Wetten dass... The fourth of five cars, an Audi, was being driven by his father. He missed it, falled, and became paraplegic after breaking the first vertebra. After one year in the hospital, he was released, and the famous TV program was suspended.

The ad of the new Zoop car looks spooky if you know Koch's story.

Beware!

Logo: Volkswagen, Vera Wang

Last week, Germans freaked completely out because of the new Golf. A big deal, they insisted.

At the same time, New Yorkers were happy because of the beginning of their Fashion Week. Among other designers, Vera Wang was omnipresent.

Joshua Bell thrice

Yesterday I attended for the third time a concert by awesome violinist Joshua Bell. The venue was very good, the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a Jugendstil building which is 100 years old. The director, Carlos Miguel Prieto, was passionate and efficient and discrete. The beautiful Shari Mason was present as well...

The publicum was not that great: I hate it when people cough and talk and eat during concerts; at least not a single cell phone went off. Some guys came late –escorted by the staff!– and were allowed to enter and move, people changing seats as the orchestra was playing, or talking, or clearing the throats or even going out (to take a leak?, presumably) and coming back. People were coughing all the time, except during the pauses, which I cannot understand (are they making themselves noticeable?).

The organizers should introdue a three minute tutorial before every concert, in order to educate the attendants and stop this musical hooliganism (Tom Service dixit).

World Press Photo 2012

Arnold Böcklin, Toteninsel (Island of the Dead, third version, 1883)

Niclas Hammarström, Utøya, the Norwegian island where Anders Brehing Breivik killed 77 people

* * *

 Toshiyuki Tsunenari, A woman cries in Natori after the devastation due to the tsunami of March off Japan

Shin A-lam cries after being defeated due to a controversial decision by the judges at the Olympic Games London 2012

The visual nerve: Borges in Milton

As I was reading today a part of the eleventh book of Paradise Lost (1674), I discovered Borges in nuce. What Milton's God sees is nothing but Borges' aleph and Borges' eclectic and fascinating hotchpotches.

His Eye might there command wherever stood

City of old or modern Fame, the Seat

Of mightiest Empire, from the destind Walls

Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temirs Throne,

To Paquin of Sinaean Kings, and thence

To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul

Down to the golden Chersonese, or where

The Persian in Ecbatan sate, or since

In Hispahan, or where the Russian Ksar

In Mosco, or the Sultan in Bizance,

Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken

Th' Empire of Negus to his utmost Port

Ercoco and the less Maritim Kings

Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind,

And Sofala thought Ophir, to the Realme

Of Congo, and Angola fardest South;

Or thence from Niger Flood to Atlas Mount

The Kingdoms of Almansor, Fez and Sus,

Marocco and Algiers, and Tremisen;

On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway

The World: in Spirit perhaps he also saw

Rich Mexico the seat of Motezume,

And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat

Of Atabalipa, and yet unspoil'd

Guiana, whose great Citie Geryons Sons

Call El Dorado: but to nobler sights

Michael from Adams eyes the Filme remov'd

Which that false Fruit that promis'd clearer sight

Had bred; then purg'd with Euphrasie and Rue

The visual Nerve, for he had much to see;

And from the Well of Life three drops instill'd.

RIP Tacheles

How long is now? It's too late!

After decades of resistance and years of fond memories in my case, Tacheles has been shut down today bzw. yesterday. This is one of the saddest Berlin-days.

The old store, once the biggest shopping mall in the world, was reduced to ruins during the II World War. Just a small part of it resisted. And independent artists and creatives saved it for decades after the Wall fall. Now, a bank has shut it down to sell it, allegedly to destroy it and use the area to build flats. How disgusting is that!

I cannot imagine Oranienburger Strasse or Berlin without Tacheles. And: Who wants to live there?

My mind went crazy and remembered the cinema, the bar, the kisses, the beers, the dancing, the sand, the Zapata club, the tourists, the making out in the terrace bar, the good nights there, the Grito with friends, the grafitti, the cheap jewelry, the prostitutes walking down the street, the schwarma and doner next door, the exhibitions, the crap, the stairs, the friends I walked in, the friends I walked out, the chic winery next door, the Bionades I had there, the pics I took.

Because of this, today I feel very depressed.

Cyclops

Alain Delon in Il Gatopardo

David Bowie

André de Toth

John Wayne

James Joyce

Marie Colvin

Claus von Stauffenberg

Sydney Cumbers

Some random girl

John Ford

 Fritz Lang

Madonna

Raoul Walsh

Dušan Prelević Prele

Man and woman, as usual

 Snapshot of Pierrot le fou

Ferdinand: Why do you look so sad?

Marianne: Because you speak to me in words and I look at you with feelings.

Berlinkuss

I got an email from this friend of mine in Berlin telling me about the death of her dad.

At the end, her farewell was the most magnificent word I could ever imagined, only possible in German language:

Berlinkuss

A Berlin-kiss.

Yes, I'm in love with Berlin, with the city, its history and its people. And I will always be, no doubt about it. It is the city of awesomeness, and destiny brought me there twice already, am still waiting for the third occasion.

Harry Benson, Berlin kiss (1996)

Steve McQueen was dubbed The King of Cool

Adenda (February 2013):

Norman Parkinson