Assorted

Best of 2007

A Girl from Mars and Mr Detamble suggest a meme to tell what was the best from 2007. These were my experiences: 

Cinema: At some point this year I decided that I would never again pay to watch a Hollywood movie unless it contained heavy doses of visual candy (special effects, actors, and such). It is just too stressful, as everything is predictable and I can't help analysing stuff in terms of "if two guys are locked in a room in a violent movie, the handsomest one will survive" "In a violent movie, any guy with facial hair is not going to live for long". and so on, and so on. The most important movie of the year was Unknown, because twenty minutes into it I realised that: 

 

* The two or three handsomest men would survive. At least of of them would be one of the "baddies". The millionaire must survive. The accountant  was disposable. The two men with facial hair would die first. Jim Caviezel's character was a baddie. The wife was also a baddie (because in an action movie, all women not running around naked are baddies). 

 

Music:  Phew. There's a lot to choose from. Probably Magnatune.

 

TV: Desperate Housewives and the Gilmore Girls. Absolutely. 

 

Live shows: I'm still savouring the Swan Lake performance by the Stuttgart ballet a week ago. Maybe it's just because it was recent. 

 

Books:  Ender's Game. Three years ago, someone recommended it to me when I said that I had no interest in Science fiction. I loved it. 

 

Art: I discovered the Museum of Popular Art and Customs and its gorgeous embrodery rooms. 

 

A place: Taibísimo, my new favourite restaurant.

 

A hobby:  Oriental Dance seems to have taken poetry's place.

 

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Cine: Este año decidí que no volvería a ver una peli de Hollywood a menos que tuviera altas dosis de caramelo visual (efectos especiales, actores, lo que fuera). Me estresa demasiado yir prediciendo toooodo lo que pasa e ir haciendo una especie de comentario de texto mental en términos de: "en una habitación cerrada sobrevive el actor más guapo". La película más importante del año es la que me hizo llegar a esta conclusión, "Mentes en Blanco", porque la peli no llevaba ni 20 minutos y ya me había dado cuenta de que de los cinco hombres, sobrevivirían los dos o tres más guapos. Al menos uno de ellos sería de los "malos". El millonario sobrevive. El contable es prescindible. Los dos hombres con vello facial (un barbudo y un calvo con bigote) serían los primeros en morir. El barbudo era de los malos. La esposa también, porque en una peli de acción si una mujer no corre en bragas delante del malo es que es la mala. 

 

Televisión: Las chicas Gilmore y Mujeres Desesperadas.

 

Música:Magnatune.

 

Espectáculos: El Lago de los Cisnes, aunque quizá fue solo porque la vi hace una semana.

 

Literatura: El juego de Ender. He tardado tres años en seguir una recomendación, y me encantó.

 

Arte: Los bordados del Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares.

 

Un sitio: Taibísimo, mi nuevo bar favorito. 

Una afición:  La danza oriental. Y hacer tartas de cumpleaños.

 

let's assume

Let's assume that someone belongs to an organisation that is very big, or so chaotic in its functioning that it looks big. Let's also assume that the organisation serves a generous purpose, but that Management is petty, mean, and abuses power. If you believe in the original ideals of the whole thing, is it better...

-to give up because life's too short?

-to focus on menial tasks that are essential to the smooth functioning of the organisation and that never call the Bad Boys' attention? 

 

Unusual habits (a meme)

Small Blue Thing sends me this meme: write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks!

I don't like to make this blog too personal, but she has tagged me and this doesn't fit on my bellydance blog, so here it goes.

1- I find it very hard to write this meme as I think I have no secrets, no little known facts. I'm too out-in-the-open. I would love to be demure and mysterious but it never comes out right.

2- I drink coffee about once every six months. I love it but I used to drink a litre a day (half strong coffee, half milk) and I'm scared that if I start I will never stop. 

3- I get anxious when there is food around. I can't not eat food that is put in front of me. This makes me look as if I was hungrier than I normally am.

4- I'm inordinately proud of my driving, even though my car is very scratched and I have very little orientation skills.

5- I think I have beautiful feet.

6- I'm slightly obssesive-compulsive about the right way to prepare and serve tea.

7- I don't like the veneration of religious images, as a superstition, but there is an icon with St George slaying the dragon on my window to protect me from evil.

8- I'm very aware of the smell of things, I believe that aromatherapy works and I'm trying to improve my olfactory memory. 

9- I cannot stand speech defects. 

10- I'm a music snob but I listen to Kiss FM in the car when I don't like what's on in Radio 3.

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Small Blue Thing me manda este meme: escribe diez cosas o costumbres realmente extraños que tengas, o al menos poco conocidas, siempre que sean poco comunes. Envíalo a seis blogueros, ¡pero no de vuelta!

No me gusta que este blog sea demasiado personal, pero me ha pedido que lo haga, y en el blog de danza oriental no pega ni con cola, así que allá vamos.  

1- Se me hace muy difícil rellenar este meme porque creo que no tengo secretos. Soy demasiado abierta. Me gusataría ser sutil y misteriosa, pero no me sale.

2- Me tomo un café más o menos cada seis meses. Me encanta, pero antes bebía cerca de un litro al día (muy fuerte, mitad leche mitad café) y me paree que si vuelvo a empezar no podré parar.

3- Me pone nerviosa que haya comida a la vista. No puedo no comer si tengo commida delante. Eso hace que parezca que soy más comilona de lo que sería en verdad si estuviera en mi casa, por ejemplo. 

4- Creo que conduzco muy bien a pesar de que mi coche esté lleno de arañazos y que tengo muy mal sentido de la orientación. 

5- Creo que tengo los pies bonitos.

6- Soy un pelín obsesivo-compulsiva con la manera correcta de preparar y servir té. 

7- No me gusta, por supersticiosa, la veneración de imágenes religiosas, pero hay un icono de San Jorge matando el dragón en mi ventana para protegerme del mal. 

8- Me fijo en el olor de las cosas, creo que la aromaterapia funciona, y estoy intentando mejorar mi memoria olfativa.

9- No soporto los defectos del habla (tipo tartamudeos, cosas así).

10- Soy muy elitista (snob, directamente) con la música que me gusta, pero escucho Kiss FM en el coche cuando no me gusta lo que hay en Radio 3.

Searches for poetry and culture shock

I have installed a visit counter that tells me what was the last website you visited before coming here. The results are fun to see, initially. I'm glad to see the popularity of e. e. cummings.

1. How to understand Adelina de paseo. (asked in English, but in Google Spain)

2. Origins of mañana unpunctuality.

3. What is commedy of manners. .

4. e. e. cummings (search asking for results in Spanish).

5. e e cummings carry you (from Mexico).

6. e. e. cummings (from Guatemala).

7. Gay poet tip (from the UK)

8. Traducción ai shiteru (from the Dominican Republic; ai shiteru means I love you in Japanese)

9. Ai shiteru (from Spain, demands results in Spanish)

10. Dum tak (Google Spain, requires results to be in Spanish)

11. Benedetti poem nose (from the UK)

12. Conceptos de cuentos para que lean niños de siete años (meaning, in Spanish: concepts from tales for seven-year-old children to read)

13 Fruta griega igo ("Greek fruit fig")

14. Eavesdropping (from Colombia, demands results in Spanish, which is weird).

15 Haikus acerca de New York ("haikus about NYC")

16 Lírica medieval universal ("medieval lyrical poetry", from Bolivia)

17. Haikus eroticos (from Catalonia).

¿Alguien quiere un coche?

Hace un mes estuve en un concurso de televisión y gané un coche. COmo yo ya tengo uno, que funcione estupendamente, vendo el nuevo. Es un Nissan Micra tres puertas, gasolina; tengo más detalles técnicos y se los puedo dar a quien los pida. Está valorado en 11.400 euros y yo lo pienso vender por bastante menos. Ahora bien, las reglas de estas cosas son que el concesionario tiene de tiempo para entregarme el coche en cualquier momento entre hoy y la primera semana de Mayo. Esto ocurriría en Sevilla.

A mí me ahorra líos tener un comprador buscado desde antes de que el coche llegue, por eso os lo digo ya. Si alguien quiere un coche nuevecito, que me deje una dirección de email en un comentario, y nos ponemos de acuerdo.

 

A letter to Martyn

Dear Martyn,

It is hard to admit that nearly two years after you've gone, I find it difficult to accept, so that's where I'll start. I can't believe or accept that you're gone. I miss you a lot, with that hopeless emptiness that comes when we miss what cannot be back. The heart has strange ways. The greatest problem is the way that you went –death I can cope with. It’s the suffering of months of cancer and the idea of you in hospital for days that I can’t take.

Listening to your music is an exercise in bittersweetness. I can't separate the experience of the music with the fact that there won't be any more of it. That is probably why I haven't even bought your first album yet; at first I told myself the reason was that I was afriad of being disappointed by it. The fact is that if and when I ever buy it, the thrill of a brand new Martyn album will be definitely gone forever, and for the moment I can't face that. Not yet. In the meantime, there's the other four albums. I have listened to them so much. Initially to drive and to exercise, sometimes to dance, as you had intended. You were even playing in the background at my last seduction attempt, when I needed the strenght and the hope that only you could give me. I think you'll be glad to know that the seduction worked both ways.

About three millennia The Greek used to think that when bright young people died, it was because the Gods loved them too much, and death was to them a fast route to Olympus. In a world without Greek gods, the idea is still appealing. That's what I want for you: a heaven with angels that dance breakbeat and piobaireacht and joik and mouth music, preferably played at the same time. Keep playing until I get there, okay?

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Es difícil admitir que casi dos años después de que te hayas ido, no lo puedo terminar de aceptar, así que empezaré por ahí. Me niego a creerme o a aceptar que te has ido. Te echo mucho de menos, con esa desesperación y ese vacío por dentro que vienen cuando uno añora lo que se ha ido para siempre. El corazón funciona de una manera muy rara. Lo peor de todo es la forma en que te fuiste: a la muerte la puedo entender. Es el sufrimiento de meses de cáncer, y la idea de que estuvieras en el hospital hecho un lío de cables, la que no puedo soportar.

 

Escuchar tu música es un ejercicio agridulce. No puedo separar la experiencia de la música con la realidad de que ya no va a haber más. Puede que por eso aún no me haya comprado tu primer disco. Al principio me decía que era porque no quería que me decepcionara, pero la verdad es que si me lo compro, ya no habrá más discos tuyos, y no puedo hacer frente a eso todavía. Mientras tanto tengo los otros cuatro discos. Cuántas veces los he escuchado. Para conducir, para hacer ejercicio, a veces también para bailar que es lo que tú pretendías. Estabas hasta sonando de fondo la última vez que seduje a alguien, cuando necesitaba tu apoyo moral. Te gustará saber que además de seducir dejé que me sedujeran, y salió bien.

 

Hace cerca de tres siglos, los griegos pensaban que si alguien joven y brillante moría joven, era porque los dioses lo amaban demasiado, y la muerte era la vía rápida al Olimpo. En un mundo sin dioses griegos la idea aún es atractiva. Eso es lo que quiero para ti: un cielo en el que los ángeles bailen breakbeat, piobaireacht, joik y mouth music, preferiblemente tocados todos a la vez. Sigue tocando hasta que llegue yo, ¿vale?

This is a public service announcement

Any comment including links to porn sites will be deleted as soon as I spot them. In fact, I check where you're linking to before I even read your comment, so if you'd like anyone, including me, to read your brilliant opinions, it would be a good idea not to link to porn sites.

No, this has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Consider this blog an extension of myself. Your right to see, make, or produce pornography is not a right to show it to me. To show people pornography against their will is a crime, or just bad manners, depending on what country we are in.

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Cualquier comentario que incluya enlaces a webs porno, aunque el comentario en sí sea interesante y válido, será borrado en cuanto lo vea. De hecho, miro el enlace antes de leer el comentario, así que si quieres que alguien, incluida yo, lea tus sabias palabras, sería buena idea que no incluyeras enlaces a webs porno.

Y no, esto no tiene nada que ver con la libertad de expresión. Considera este blog una extensión de su autora. Tu derecho a ver, hacer, o producir pornografía no incluye un derecho a enseñármela. Mostrar pornografía a otras personas contra su voluntad es un delito, o simplemente mala educación, depende de en qué país estés.

Pequeño aviso de emergencia

This is of no interest to foreign readers.

Ayer me robaron el bolso, con el teléfono dentro, y eso quiere decir que cualquier número de teléfono que tenga desde hace menos de más o menos un año lo he perdido. Si me conoces y tienes mi número, por favor, mándame un mensaje para que pueda volver a apuntarlo. Mi número sigue siendo el de antes.

zooommmm

I don't normally talk about myself in this blog, but I have news.

I have two jobs: one that makes money and adjusts to a schedule and another one that doesn't make money and has flexible hours. The moneymaking one has gone from a lovely 8 hours a week to 20 (with about two hours a day spent in transport). It's a lot more than I can manage. I'm physically drained and emotionally ecstatic. If you know me in the real world, you have a moral obligation to force me to go out on weekends. 

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Normalmente no hablo mucho de mí en esta bitácora, pero hoy hay noticias.

Tengo dos trabajos: el que da dinero y sigue un horario, y el que hago gratis  y cuando puedo. El que da dinero ha pasado de 2 horas al día (8 a la semana), que era perfecto, a unas cinco al día, sin contar dos horas de coche más o menos. Es mucho más de lo que puedo abarcar. Físicamente estoy hecha polvo; emocionalmente, eufórica tirando a delosnervios. Si me conoces en el mundo real, tienes la obligación moral de obligarme a salir los fines de semana. 

 

Announcement

I get the impression that the proportion of Spanish visits to this blog has been increasing steadily during the last few months. So, I'm going to take back what I said about this blog blending my two languages. From now on, all posts are going to be bilingual unless the nature of a poem or a pun is untranslatable. Making each post bilingual is going to be messy, a LOT more messy than having two mirror blogs, one for each language. But right now, I need it to be messy. As messy as the bilingual contents of my mind. 

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Tengo la sensación de que la proporción de lectores hispanoparlantes de esta bitácora ha aumentado progresivamente en los últimos meses. Por eso, retiro lo dicho, y voy a dejar de mezclar los dos idiomas añadiendo toquecillos de español a la base inglesa. Desde ahora, todas las entradas van a ser totalmente bilingües, a menos que un poema o un juego de palabras sea intraducible por su propia naturaleza. Crear entradas bilingües va a ser un poco lío para los lectores, desde luego menos estético que tener dos bitácoras-espejo, una en cada idioma. Pero ahora mismo, necesito que sea un poco lioso. Como mínimo tan lioso como mis pensamientos, bilingües, dobles, trenzados sobre sí mismos.

 

 

Book Day

I don't have anything to say about Book Day that I haven't said already. I celebrated Book Day yesterday, and received three books: an unexpected children's book with gorgeous illustrations , a detective story set in Shanghai, and the one on which the movie Brokeback Mountain is based.

Yes, too few books. But that is easily solved . *wink*  

 

 

Happy holidays.

Grrrr. Blogia has destroyed my edited copy of a post in Zifra's blog with Christmas greetings and happy New Year wishes in several dozen languages. Anyway.

 I hope you don't have to be anywhere near a computer in the next three or four days. Celebrate whatever you feel like (I remember that curious little American Academese expression, "have a nice Winter Break" with lots of food and with everyone you love, and see you some time next week with more poetry (and occasional culture shock).

We're one year old today

This blog started the day after Thanksgiving, 2004. Thanksgiving is the last Thursday in November, so I'd rather measure the year according to that date, not to a calendar date. Easier to remember.

 I wonder if other cultures, apart from the United States, have a day that consists on thanking the forces of the Universe for the good things of the last year. I know there is nothing of the sort in Europe, which is a shame. I enjoyed my one American thanksgiving very much, and any excuse is good for having a huge family meal. But then again, I'm conveniently skipping the fact that Thanksgiving is a holiday that sits on the Native American genocide. Native Americans don't have a lot to be thankful for.

Anyway. Thanks very much for coming here. Now let's go back to the poetry.

Terrible losses

Oh my. Eduardo Haro Tecglen and Ba Jin have died. Haro Tecglen, for those of you outside Spain, was a Spanish journalist who had had a column in a leading newspaper for as long as anyone could remember. And Ba Jin was a Chinese novelist, whose The Kao Family shaped my understanding of life when I was in my early teens.

I'm not in the mood to translate a chunk of the works of either.

The Jewelry Shop has had a makeover

The design of the jewelry site is as plain and simple as it's always been, but now the items are divided in categories according to colour availability (not all models come in all colours). And everything is numbered so that picking is easy.

If the prices seem surprisingly low, read this. Or simply, it's just that I like to keep them that way.

The Belly Dance Blog in Spanish has a few minor changes; all old posts will be recycled with more links, photos when available and more colour.

Swimwear

Yesterday, after a couple of hours of wrestling through Spanish small-town traffic, I went to the beach. What I like best about the beach is people-watching. The one I went to is just outside the city of Cádiz, so there are more people from town on a day off than tourists, and everyone behaves as if they were in their living-room. Plenty of mobile phone conversations, the juicy gossip that you'd normally whisper amplified for the benefit of the neighbours. And everyone happily walking about in their underwear.

A month ago I went with some friends to Lake Owasco, and I was the only one out of four women with a bikini. Of course! I don't even own any one-piece swimsuits. One of my friends said, "In Europe the fashion police arrests people who wear one-pieces". A little bit exaggerated, but nearly true. Yesterday, all women except the very obese or pathologically shy were happily showing off tanned bellies.

The most surprising thing was not the absence of one-pieces in this family-oriented beach. What I would like to know is, why all the little girls, babies even, wear bikinis while so many women go topless?

Oriental dance blog (shameless self-promotion)

This is an announcement of my new blog on belly dance, which will be fully in Spanish, so I will go on in that language.

Hace algunos meses asistí a un curso intensivo de danza oriental. 15 horas de talleres y dos espectáculos de más de dos horas, en dos días. Allí conocí a una chica que llevaba aprendiendo danza del vientre un poco más de tiempo que yo, y que me dijo que era profesora de principiantes en una academia. También me contó que su nivel no era lo bastante bueno como para actuar en público, especialmente delante de gente tan experta como algunas de las asistentes al curso. Aquello me escandalizó, porque me di cuenta de que cualquiera puede poner un cartel en la puerta y autoproclamarse profesora de danza oriental. En Occidente, las estudiantes novatas no tienen con qué comparar a su profesora. En España, al meos en las partes del país donde se baila flamenco, alguien interesado sí puede comparar, pero con la danza oriental hay un desconocimiento peligroso. Una mala profesora te puede transmitir sus defectos, hacerte pensar que no se te da bien cuando se trate de un problema de método o de estilo, y lo peor de todo, puede provocarte lesiones serias de espalda o de rodillas.

Por otra parte, está la reputación de la mal llamada danza del vientre y de quienes la practican. Por ejemplo, una búsqueda Google de las palabras "danza del vientre" y el nombre de mi ciudad (no voy a dar los datos exactos para no dar publicidad a esta persona) conduce al anuncio de alguien que practica strip-teases en despedidas de soltero. No tengo por qué dudar de la calidad técnica de esa bailarina, pero no me da la gana de limitar a eso este baile, que puede ser un arte tan digno y expresivo como el ballet clásico en las manos adecuadas.

Lo que quiero es que la próxima vez que alguien meta en Google "danza del vientre", no se encuentren el horario de una academia que no explica si la profesora practica baile turco, egipcio, a la americana, folk o cabaré, o un poco de todo. Ni un anuncio de striptease. Quiero que se encuentren información. Así que como nadie está dando información sin intentar vender algo, daré esa información yo. Se admiten co-escritor@s.

Señoras y señores, bienvenidos a Sólo Cuando Bailo, la única bitacora informativa sobre danza oriental.

If I was....

No poetry today. This is not a personal, diary-type blog, but this questionnaire in Suskiin's blog is amusing.

If I was....

* A month, I'd be December. Because my birthday, and my favourite Holiday, which is Christmas, are near the end of the month.
* A day, I´d be Tuesday, or the day two days after a holiday. Full of energy and activity, but without the slowness and sadness of Mondays.
* A time of day, I´d be lunchtime. No doubt about it.
* A planet, I´d be Jupiter. A failed star.
* an animal, I´de be a tiger when I want to be alone and a penguin when I need lots of people around me.
* a piece of furniture, I´de be a bed. The bed of someone who likes to read and eat and talk on the phone in bed, a bed that doubles as sofa in the rare occasions noone lies down under the covers.
* a liquid I´d be... tea. Darjeeling, preferably.
* a musical instrument, I'd be hopefully a tabla or similar. A North-African percussion instrument.
* a feeling I'd be impatience.
* a food or meal I'd be curry with fruit in it. So much chili it makes you cry but enough sweetness to be nice. I hope.
* a number, I'd be 17. the number of syllables in a haiku.
* a body part, I´d be the tongue.
* a scent, I´d be cinammon.
* a geometrical shape, I'd be an oval.
* a country, I'd be... phew, no idea. Spain most likely.
* A poet, I'd be... I am a poet already.
* a movie, I'd be The Age of Innocence. I have never been in a love triangle like that, but my life feels a lot like that movie.
* somebody else I'd be... who knows?
* a plant or flower I'd be... something with red flowers. Hibiscus, maybe.

Christians and Marriage.

This is my own translation, taking a few liberties, of a Spanish blog post that everyone has read either in its original location or as an anonymous e-mail atachment. The Spanish original is here.

***
Since the modification of the laws that apply to marriage, and the Christian views on the issue, are controversial these days, I am going to explain my own opinion:

I am completely in favour of allowing Christians to get married.

I think that trying to prevent it is unjust and a mistake.

Christianity is not a disease. Christians, even though they are disliked or mistrusted by many, are normal people and should have the same rights as everyone else, as if they were, let’s say, homosexuals or computer programmers.

I am aware of the fact that many traits in the behaviour of Christians, such as their attitudes towards sex, many seem strange to the rest of us. I know that sometimes, reasons of health policy could be argued against them: for example, their dangerous, delibarate rejection of contraceptives. I also know that some of their traditions, like the public exhibition of images of tortured people, may make some people feel uncomfortable.

But all this, besides being an image transmitted by the media rather than the reality, is not a reason to prevent their marriage.

Some could argue that Christian marriage is not real marriage, because to them, it is a ritual, and a covenant with their god, instead of a contract for the union of two people. Also, since sex outside marriage is condemned by Christianity, some could say that allowing Christians to marry would encourage marriages in order to avoid shame in their communities or simply because they wish to have sex (forbidden to them outside a marriage), increasing domestic violence and dysfunctional families. But we have to remember that this is not exclusive of Christian families and that, since we cannot know the thoughts of others, we should not judge their intimate motivations.

On the other hand, to say that their unions are not true marriage and that therefore they should be given some other name is just a mean, petty technique to lead the debate towards semantic questions that are beside the point. Even among Christians, marriage is marriage and a family is a family.

And with this I will go on to another very controversial subject that I hope does not seem too radical: I am also in favour of allowing Christians to adopt children.

Some people might be outraged by my affirmation. A few are likely to reply, “Christians adopting!? Those kids could become Christians!?”

I see that type of criticism and my answer is: even though the children of Christians have a much higher likelihood of becoming Christians also (contrary to what happens to the children of homosexuals or computer programmers), I have already made clear that I believe Christians to be human beings like everybody else.

Despite the opinions of some and the hints that we have, there is no conclusive evidence that Christian parents are less well equipped to raise a child, or that the religiously biased atmosphere of a Christian home is a negative influence of a child. Besides, adoption offices judge each case individually so it should be up to these to determine whether a pair of parents is the right one or not.

In short, in spite of what some people think, I believe that Christians should have the right to get married and to adopt children. Just like homosexuals, or computer programmers.