Blue: Yves Klein, Peter Lindbergh

 

 

 

Melting: Dalí, Alex Chinnek

 

Dalí

Alex Chinnek

 

 

Alfredo de Stefano, Mars

NASA, Ingenuity on Mars (2021)

 

 

Alfredo de Stefano, Solo, Namibian Desert (2018)

Hearts: La Paz, Berlin

 

 

 

 

Public art: Paris, Berlin

 

Daniel Buren

Dennis Josef Meseg

 

 

Gradient: Instagram, Space Jam

 

 

 

Yugoslavian brutalism, German contemporary architecture

 

 

Helmut Newton, Max Ernst

 

 

Helmut Newton

 Max Ernst & Leonora Carrington

 

 

Yellowstone, oil spill

 

The beauty of nature

 

The beauty of disaster

Superman's spaceship, Kosmaj

 

In the 1978 movie "Superman", El-Jor, better known as Marlon Brando, sends his son to planet Earth on this spaceship.

 This monument is on top of mountain Kosmaj to commemorate a partisan division that fought during World War 2.

Hasselblad, GoPro

Long before GoPro developed the chest mount for its camera, NASA had come up with such an idea for the Hasselblad cameras used during the Apollo 11 expedition.

Hasselblad

 

GoPro

Laguna de Sánchez: before, after

 

 This is how the region used to look like and how it looks like now amid the fires.

 

Kuwait 1991, Arteaga 2021

Steve McCurry, Kuwait (1991)

 

Arteaga, Coahuila (2021)

There have been a number of fires in the mountains of Coahuila and Nuevo León back home. It's out of control, thousands of hectares have been destroyed, people relocated, fauna has died.

New Prussia: German order after World War I

 

What would had happened if Germany had won World War I?

Amid the war, in February 1916, Life magazine published a map of how North America could look like. On its cover!

It's amazing how the imagination of the editors renamed the geography. It's worth perusing the map.

Enjoy!

Satan shoes

 

 

 

Revenge

Lil Nas

 

Lil Nas produced 666 pairs partially filled with human blood (a joke) and today sold each pair for 1,000 dollars. It took him less than a minute to sell all of them! But Nike sued him: Satan doesn't align with the brand.

Bocca della veritá, Aztec calendar

 

 

 

Denni Parkinson, Pamela Anderson

 

Denni Parkinson with Richard Branson

Pamela Anderson with random model

Suez, Iceland

 

 

Suez canal blocked by large container ship Ever Given. Thousands of cargo ships have been delayed.

 

At the same time, a huge amount of Icelanders are blocking the road that goes up to the active volcano Geldingadalur. In 2010, thousands of flights were cancelled due to ashes coming out from another volcano in Iceland.
 

Mexico City's metro, Xiaomi

 

Mexico City's subway system, designed by Lance Wyman (1968)

Xiaomi (2010)

Tan line: as before or as now?

 

 

 

Humans and computers watching each other

Humans watching computers (units produced in East Germany at a parade in 1989, a few months before the Berlin Wall collapsed)

 

Computers watching humans through AI

Devouring: Codex Altonensis, Rubens, Goya

 

 

Codex Altonensis, Lucifer devouring the traitors from the Divina Commedia (14th Century)

 

Rubens, Saturn devouring his son (1636)

Goya, Saturn devouring his son (1823)

 

Chopin, Javier Bardem

I have been posting stuff on social networks but I just don't want to let this blog die, so I am back with a new sosias.

 

Chopin   

Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)

 

 

 

Wrapping up 2019

Hey!

Thanks for subscribing to my first tinny letter, an idea I had been ruminating for some time, until I found out that my friend Tanya has a cool one; that kicked my ass.

2019 was a fruitful year, full of learning and challenges. It was fantastic.

These are some highlights I think of just minutes before dinner. Listen to Too Close, by Alex Clare, while reading.


What I learned

• I think I'm finally over with the death of my brother, an issue that had been draining my energy for so long.
  
• In that sense, I am learning to be optimistic instead of embittered.
  
• As I turned 40, I realized this is the perfect age: you have enough energy and enough wisdom/experience.
  
• I finally understood that I am in Berlin, Europe's Silicon Valley.

Discoveries

1. I got into audio books and listened to almost 2 dozens of them. Fiction doesn't work for me, but non-fiction does. My favorites were:

• Sapiens, by Yuval Harari (fascinating summary of our history)
• Originals, by Adam Grant (just mind blowing!)
• Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert (inspiring, better than the podcast)
• Vivir para contarla, by Gabriel García Márquez (a lot of fiction but in a Borgesean way––his best book!)
• Creativity Inc, by Ed Catmul (don't miss the last chapter on how Steve Jobs became a better person)
• In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki (you'll never see light and shadows the same way again)
• An Empire of Ice, Edward Larson (the conquer of the two poles from a scientific point of view)
• Mindset, by Carol Dweck (the very first account on what is and how does mindset drives us)
• Becoming, Michelle Obama (the brave female insight into the Obamas' story)

2. I did research into Afromexicans:

• They brought rice to Mexico (the Americas), as Spaniards saw it as food for poor in contrast to wheat
• They brought with them and/or developed three drinks that are fundamental in Mexico: jamaica, tamarindo, horchata.
• "Pelo chino" has nothing to do with China, but with their genes: the mix of a black man and an indigenous woman was called "chino", therefore the name for curly hair.

3. I was honored to present the novel Olinka, by Antonio Ortuño, in Berlin. First time in my life someone graces me with such an invitation. Double honored to be him!


Podcast episodes I loved

• Star Talk (Neil deGrasse Tayson), with Salman Rushdie (insights into storytelling)
• So, you want to be a writer, with Greame Simsion (cool if you liked The Rosie Project)
• Los olvidados (Antonio Meucci), with Javier Peraza
• Hardcore History, with Dan Carlin (I'll never forget the nuclear and the Julius Caesar shows)
• And sooo many with Joe Rogan, I don't know where to start with

Books I still have on my bedside and my chaos hasn't allowed me to finish

• Retrato de mi madre con perros, by Daniel Rodríguez Barrón (sorry!, will finish it asap!)
• Llegada la hora, by Karla Zárate (sorry!, will finish it asap!)
• Mínimas despedidas, by Lorea Canales (sorry again!, will finish it asap!)
• Leonardo, by Walter Isaacson
• Loosing my Virginity, by Richard Branson
• On Working, by Robert Caro
• Here I Am, by Jonathan Safran Foer
• An Object of Beauty, by Steve Martin
• Lexicon, by Max Berry
• Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli
• Ahora me rindo y eso es todo, by Álvaro Enriigue

Series I enjoyed

• The Vietnam War
• The II World War in Colour
• Genius: Einstein
• Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates

Planned challenges

• After 80 sessions of coaching, I am ready to launch my agency. And down the road, I grew 6x.
• I woke up 145 times at 4:30am and hit the gym.
  • Best month: April (24 times).
  • Worst month: December (3 times).
• I finished my #apictureaday challenge on Instagram and told 365 different stories

 

Unplanned challenge

I made my first steps into art dealing, got acquainted with the market and built an amazing team across the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.


What am I up to 2020

• I will publish 1 book I just finished writing
• I will publish 1 book I edited and contributed to
• I will publish 2 books I ghostwrote
• I will start a portrait series of 500 individuals on Instagram to learn how to better connect with people
• I will launch my content marketing agency
• I will master the fucking human flag
• I will launch an app

So, I just realized that my first tinny letter looks rather like a bunch of lists...

Happy 2020! Keep growing––it's all about growth.

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