31.3.08
..:: déjenme bailar ::..
Del programa chileno 31.
..:: mayweather y goliat ::..
..:: hereafter ::..
Sí, es como mi palabra consentida: "hereafter".
30.3.08
Sueño. Un hospital, una charola de comida de hospital. El logo de Air France en las servilletas, los cubiertos. Después, el cuarto está junto a una alberca, un niño chapotea y me salpica, hay sol, mucho, y me duele la cabeza. Los riñones: me dan jugo de piña, me hacen beber cantidades obscenas de jugo de piña. Leo una revista, Elle, creo, o Marie Claire: dicen de qué está hecho el jabón con el que, oníricos minutos después, me bañaré, en un río estilo Chalma. Despierto, me quedé dormido viendo Life After People, el documental de History Channel. Recuerdo: ratas, grises y perfectas, tomaban la Tierra. Muevo los párpados, los brazos, las piernas adoloridas por el jogging de ayer. No me duelen los riñones, no me sabe la boca a piña, no hay un número de Elle en el buró. Me duele la cabeza, la boca me sabe a hiel, hay un ejemplar de Esquire en el buró.
29.3.08
28.3.08
..:: conversations with other women: crítica ::..
Tomada de Cine PREMIERE, se estrena hoy en la cartelera nacional.
Conversando con la otra ***/*****
(Conversations with Other Women)
EUA/GBR 2005
Dir. Hans Canosa (Alma Mater)
Con Aaron Eckhart y Helena Bonham Carter
Dos exes se encuentran, 15 años tras el rompimiento, en una boda. Recuerdan, hablan sobre sus parejas actuales –la de ella un cardiólogo británico, la de él una flexible bailarina–, se van a la cama. Pieza de diálogos inteligentes, de brutal honestidad, sobre el yugo de la edad y la vida romántica, que es llevada al cine utilizando un recurso que termina por desgastarse. Hans Canosa divide la pantalla en dos, combinando close-ups , flashbacks y tomas a los engañados. Las buenas actuaciones sostienen la tensión, pero hay momentos (muchos) en que, a diferencia del Timecode de Mike Figgis, la intensidad se diluye ante el mareo del espectador. Interesante ejercicio, sin embargo.
–César Albarrán Torres
26.3.08
25.3.08
A doppelgänger or fetch is the ghostly double of a living person, a sinister form of bilocation.
In the vernacular, "Doppelgänger" has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person—most commonly an "evil twin". The literal translation of the German word is "doublewalker", meaning someone who is acting (e.g. walking) the same way as another person. The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance.
..:: dobleces::..
"Bueno... Cine PREMIERE".
"Sí, ¿me comunica con César Albarrán Torres?".
"¿Quién lo busca?".
"El Lic. Torres Albarrán de Canal Once".
Pero hace dos semanas hubo una coincidencia aún mayor.
"Carnal, me llegó un CV de una María del Carmen Albarrán Torres, ¿es algo tuyo?".
"No, para nada", respondí.
Ahora, en la editorial hay alguien con mis apellidos. No creemos tener parentezco alguno. But still it makes you think: we are not that unique after all.
¿Y si, como en La doble vida de Vernónica, hay un Caesar perdido en Polonia o el Kurdistán?
24.3.08
..:: un ojo al gato ::..
es que veo una cosa en la red, me distraigo, regreso a la tesis, regreso a la red, regreso a la tesis, regreso a la red, y ahora regreso a la red
22.3.08
..:: if i were bridget jones...
Food consumed today:
3 quesadillas (assorted ingridients: cheese, "requesón", mushrooms)
1 diet coke
6 units potato chips (organic, though)
4 tablespoons fresh lentils w/ vinegar and red pepper
5 smalls slices of cheese
5 crackers
2 baby onions
1 large plate of the best rissoto ever (clams, shrimps, asparagus, clam sauce)
1 small ciabatta
1 slice of fruit tart
2 espressos
20.3.08
19.3.08
..:: obama on race: editorial the washington post ::..
Moment of Truth
Prompted by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama squarely addresses the issue of race.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008; A14
SEN. BARACK Obama's mission in Philadelphia yesterday was to put the controversy over inflammatory statements made by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his spiritual mentor and pastor for 20 years, behind him. But Mr. Obama (D-Ill.) went deeper than that. He used his address as a teachable moment, one in which he addressed the pain, anger and frustration of generations of blacks and whites head-on -- and offered a vision of how those experiences could be surmounted, if not forgotten. It was a compelling answer both to the challenge presented by his pastor's comments and to the growing role of race in the presidential campaign.
Mr. Obama discussed what he knew about the Rev. Wright's views more frankly than before. "Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course," the senator said. "Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely. . . . " He went on to say that the comments weren't just controversial, "they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with American above all that we know is right with America."
Yet Mr. Obama didn't condemn the Rev. Wright even as he rejected his rhetoric. Instead, he placed the 66-year-old pastor into historical context: "For the men and women of Rev. Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years." He added, "But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."
Mr. Obama then described the resentment among some whites over affirmative action, busing, crime and a shrinking job base, saying those feelings also "are grounded in legitimate concerns." He talked about the need for whites to recognize the lingering problem of racial discrimination -- and for blacks to embrace the "quintessentially American -- and yes, conservative -- notion of self-help."
Mr. Obama's speech was an extraordinary moment of truth-telling. He coupled it with an appeal that this year's campaign not be dominated by distorted and polarizing debates about whether he or his opponents agree with extreme statements by supporters -- or other attempts to divide the electorate along racial lines. Far better, he argued, that Americans of all races recognize they face common economic, social and security problems. We don't agree with the way Mr. Obama described some of those problems yesterday or with some of his solutions for them. But he was right to condemn the Rev. Wright's words, was eloquent in describing the persistent challenge of race and racism in American society -- and was right in proposing that this year's campaign rise above "a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism."
16.3.08
..:: bob dylan: 15 polaroids ::..
Bob Dylan: 15 polaroids
Por César Albarrán Torres
Mejor asentir ante la conjura de los necios: “No, Dylan no es el de antes”.
Y qué mejor.
Después lo sabré: la mujer es una mordaz, enjundiosa pintora.
Es y no es Dylan. Y viceversa.
Hoy: Woody Guthrie, Jacques Brel, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan.
“…someplace along the line Suze had also introduced me to the poetry of French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud. That was a big deal, too. I came along one of his letters called ‘Je est un autre’, which translates into ‘I is someone else’”.
El ser como hecho indescriptible.
Debería repartir, en esta Tierra oxidada, su Viagra creativo.
13.3.08
..:: sobre el escándalo spitzer ::..
Nunca he sido muy dado a verle tres pies al gato cuando se trata de asuntos de género, pero el tratamiento que la prensa en general, y el diario REFORMA en particular, le ha dado al escándalo sexual que tumbó al ahora exgobernador de Nueva York, Eliot Spitzer, raya en la franca estupidez, en el mejor de los casos, o en el insulto, en el peor. Los encabezados lo dicen todo. La fotogalería (arriba), se titula "El cuerpo del delito". En ella, prácticamente se culpa a la prostituta, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, de la caída del mentado político demócrata y aliado de Hillary Clinton. Yo lo leo así: "El cuerpo del delito" hace de Ashley un objeto de pecado, la despoja de su carácter de persona, le pone la etiqueta de "culpable". Y la muestran, Ave María Purísima, en bikini (sí, ella provoca miradas lascivas, ella despedazó un hogar, ay). El título de la liga que lleva a dicha fotogalería (izquierda) es aún peor: "Tira prostituta a Gobernador de NY˝. O sea: fue ella, y no él, la causante del derrumbe del antes apodado "Eliot Ness" por su implacable persecusión del delito. Sí, ahora él es la víctima: ¿lo obligaron a recurrir a los servicios del escort service? ¿Fue Ashley la que llamó a los cazadores de brujas? ¿Cuando acudió al llamado de Spitzer, como acudiría al de cualquier otro cliente, lo hizo con la intención premeditada de "tirar" al gobernador? Por favor, señores. Quiero creer que estos encabezados son producto del oportunismo o la estupidez, y no de una intención malsana. Y bueno, ya que estamos en esto: el revuelo causado por el caso revela la hipocresía de la clase política gringa –muy bien abordada por Philip Roth en su novela The Human Stain, por cierto–, esa clase política que pretende llegar a la Casa Blanca vía Hillary Clinton –harpía disfrazada de "esposa abnegada", abnegada y humillada como la esposa de Spitzer que, callada, acompañó a su marido cuando dimitió– o John McCain. Hipócrita eso de derrumbar a una figura pública por un asunto privado. El pecado de Spitzer, políticamente hablando, fue el no ser discreto. Digo, son legendarias las epopeyas eróticas de JFK, y ahora hasta un aeropuerto lleva su nombre. Y qué decir de Bill.
En fin, the confederacy of dunces.
"I'm no monster", dice ella aquí.
12.3.08
..:: leave me alone! ::..
Woman stuck on toilet for two years, police say
- 35-year-old woman's skin had grown around the lid of the toilet, police say
- Official: Toilet seat had to be pried off her body, seat went with her to hospital
- Boyfriend claims he bought food, water to girlfriend who refused to leave bathroom
- Police found woman with pants at mid-thigh, disoriented, legs atrophied
WICHITA, Kansas (AP) -- Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend's toilet after sitting on it for two years.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman's skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.
"We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital," Whipple said. "The hospital removed it."
Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman's 36-year-old boyfriend.
"She was not glued. She was not tied. She was just physically stuck by her body," Whipple said. "It is hard to imagine. ... I still have a hard time imagining it myself."
He told investigators he brought his girlfriend food and water, and asked her every day to come out of the bathroom.
"And her reply would be, `Maybe tomorrow,"' Whipple said. "According to him, she did not want to leave the bathroom."
The boyfriend called police on February 27 to report that "there was something wrong with his girlfriend," Whipple said, adding that he never explained why it took him two years to call.
Police found the clothed woman sitting on the toilet, her sweat pants down to her mid-thigh. She was "somewhat disoriented," and her legs looked like they had atrophied, Whipple said.
"She said that she didn't need any help, that she was OK and did not want to leave," he said.
She was taken to a hospital in Wichita, about 150 miles southeast of Ness City. Whipple said she has refused to cooperate with medical providers or law enforcement investigators.
Authorities said they did not know if she was mentally or physically disabled.
Police have declined to release the couple's names, but the house where authorities say the incident happened is listed in public records as the residence of Kory McFarren. No one answered his home phone number.
The case has been the buzz Ness City, said James Ellis, a neighbor.
"I don't think anybody can make any sense out of it," he said.
Ellis said he had known the woman since she was a child but that he had not seen her for at least six years.
He said she had a tough childhood after her mother died at a young age and apparently was usually kept inside the house as she grew up. At one time the woman worked for a long-term care facility, he said, but he did not know what kind of work she did there.
"It really doesn't surprise me," Ellis said of the bathroom incident. "What surprises me is somebody wasn't called in a bit earlier."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed...:: manita de gato ::..
11.3.08
..:: crítica the nanny diaries ::..
De Cine PREMIERE 162 (marzo 2008):
Una niñera en apuros (The Nanny Diaries) de Shari Sprinberg Berman y Robert Pulcini
***/*****
EUA 2007 / 106 min
Con Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti
Disección antropológica de las tribus que rondan el Upper East Side neoyorquino disfrazada de chick flick. La historia de una chica que busca hacerla en Manhattan y termina siendo niñera para el hijo de una mujer histérica (Laura Linney, espléndida) y un padre ausente, toca fibras más profundas de lo que se podría inferir por su empaque comercial: tira inteligentes dardos al consumismo, a la obsesión por la comida sana, al dinero como antídoto contra el goce de lo sencillo. Scarlett Johansson, sin embargo, da asomos de óxido histriónico: a veces, su voz rasposa y su figura bien hecha no son suficientes para sostener a un personaje. Pero, ay, qué bien se ve a cuadro.
–César Albarrán Torres
..::snakes on a town ::..
Snakes invade Brazilian city as forest disappears
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Snakes -- including one 10-foot anaconda -- are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon's largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government's environmental protection agency said Tuesday.
The agency, known as Ibama, has been called out to capture 21 snakes this year in Belem, Brazil, a sprawling metropolis of 1.5 million people at the mouth of the Amazon River, Ibama press officer Luciana Almeida said by telephone.
In normal years, Ibama gets no more than one or two calls a month, she said.
No poisonous snakes were reported, she said. But the captured snakes included a 10-foot anaconda, usually a jungle recluse.
"People are scared," she said. "Imagine finding a 3-meter [10 foot] snake in your plumbing."
Almeida said Ibama believes the increase in snakes is a result of rising deforestation by loggers, ranchers and developers in the Amazon jungle surrounding the Belem urban area.
"Deforestation destroys their habitat, so they come to the city," she said.
Ibama has a veterinary team that captures the snakes and takes them to a zoo or to an outlying park to release them, Almeida said.
..:: la curva ::..
Es cierto: al principio se tiene verborrea, se escribe tupida, copiosamente. Como cuando algo te deja de dar pena : supongo que así se sienten, iniciados en su estilo de vida, los nudistas. Hay tres, cuatro entradas diarias. Después, se van recomendando libros, videos de youtube. Más tarde uno nada más pega noticias, curiosidades, artículos publicados en otros lados. La curva desciende: tres días despues se repite. Verborrea-recomendaciones-llenar por llenar-verborrea…
Es, sí, como estar desnudo frente a un salón de clases. Como un vicio placentero y recién adquirido.
8.3.08
..:: would you REALLY trust her at 3 o'clock in the morning? ::..
The Obama campaign sent out this memo today...
The Clinton campaign has publicly admitted that the only way they can still win this election is by tearing Barack Obama down. They have called their attacks the “kitchen sink strategy,” and Senator Clinton herself has referred to it as “the fun part” of the campaign. The result has been a constant barrage of attacks about Senator Obama’s record that they know full well aren’t true. And yet they repeat them, over and over again, day after day, in an attempt to deceive the American people just so that they can win this election.
This may be fun for the Clinton campaign, but this is exactly why people don’t trust their leaders anymore. This is exactly why so many people are so cynical about the political process. And it’s exactly what Barack Obama is running to change.
There is no more serious issue than the war in Iraq. 150,000 American troops are risking their lives every day in a conflict that this President and John McCain have no intention of ending anytime soon. It’s a conflict that’s cost us thousands of lives, billions of dollars, stretched our military and taxed their families, and has seriously undermined our national security, our moral standing, and our ability to go after Osama bin Laden and the core leadership of al Qaeda and finish the job against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Barack Obama had the judgment to oppose this war before it began for these exact reasons. Senator Clinton voted for this war, and yet she continues to tell the American people that her vote was for diplomacy even though the resolution was titled, “Joint Resolution to Authorize the use of Military Force Against Iraq.”
When Senator Obama arrived in the Senate, he called for a phased withdrawal before Senator Clinton did. He also introduced comprehensive legislation in the Senate to begin removing combat troops at a pace of 1-2 brigades a month, with an end date for completing that drawdown – legislation that became the basis for the Senate Democrats’ plan to end the war.
Barack Obama has said, repeatedly, that when he is President, his first act will be to convene the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ask them to immediately put in place his plan for withdrawal. He’s also said, as he did recently on 60 Minutes, that as Commander-in-Chief he would retain the flexibility to implement this withdrawal in a way that ensures the safety and security of our troops. But there has never been a doubt about the purpose of his policy – ending this war and bringing our troops home on a timetable for withdrawal.
The Clinton campaign knows full well that this is Senator Obama’s position, and they know full well that this flexibility is what his former advisor was referring to. They know it because preserving flexibility for the Commander-in-Chief has also been Senator Clinton’s position – or at least it was until she made the judgment that attacking Barack Obama on this issue is more politically beneficial to her campaign.
Washington has played too much politics with the issue of war. It’s what got us into Iraq in the first place. It’s why so many brave Americans have lost their lives. And it’s why the real Commander-in-Chief test in this election isn’t about some TV ad, it’s about whether the American people will be able to trust in the judgment and the honesty of their next President.
If the Clinton campaign wants to have a serious debate about who opposed the war in Iraq and who’s more committed to ending it, we’re more than happy to have that debate. But they should stop playing politics with war, and they should stop telling the American people things that they know aren’t true. We will not let this campaign be about who can tear each other down. We owe it to the American people to try and lift this country up.