Monthly Archives: October 2006

October 16, 2006 · 6:50 pm

Saturday with the Kids

I spent all of Saturday with my friends Kevin and Rocío, Santi and Clara, and with their lovey children Marina and Javier. Marina and Javier were both born in May 2005, and now that they are almost 18 months old they are getting more and more fun to play with. I finally got Javier to start kicking a ball with his feet. Santi was a bit concerned that Javier was always using his hands. Example is the best teacher. So with more actions than words, we showed Javier how to kick the ball. I will never pressure my children to become professional athletes and to retire their father. But, Javier is Santi’s son, so there is no problem with me pressuring his son to fulfill my frustrated professional aspirations and to add to my retirement plan. Meanwhile, Marina is becoming an expert in kissing and in reading. Hmm? You think that I am negatively promoting gender roles with my friends’ children? I would think so, but it is incredibly amazing to see how these two children interact with the world in incredibly different and natural ways: one as a boy and the other as a girl.

In any event, I had so much fun with them all on Saturday. On Friday, me and the parents are all supposed to go to dinner sans children. For some reason, it doesn’t seem so exciting without the kids. I might just come up with some excuse to get out of it . . . (here is Marina showing off her pool tricks).

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October 10, 2006 · 7:08 pm

Rose Superstar is Back and this Time it’s with el Barça

Como informé a los lectores de este blog y en esta sección Rose Superstar, nuestra héroe del baloncesto femenino ahora milita en el Barça. Después de unas merecidísimas vacaciones este verano, nuestra crack empezó a entrenar en las filas del Barça al principios de Septiembre. Este jueves estrena como blaugrana esta temporada en Ibiza contra el EBE Promociones-PDV Santa Eulalia. Curiosamente, la prensa rosa ha comentado haberle visto a la Rose Superstar paseando por el puerto del mismo Santa Eulalia este pasado mes de Julio. Para más morbo aún, este domingo nuestra Rose Superstar se enfrenta a sus antiguas compañeras (por lo mismo las que quedan aún) del USP-CEU MMT Estudiantes. Para calentar el encuentro, pongo este video donde se ven los multiples triples metidos por Rose #10 (y las grandes jugadas de sus ex-compes) contra el CajaCanarias en la temporada pasada:

 

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October 9, 2006 · 10:07 pm

The Year of Spaghetti

Spaghetti 1971

I am just about to go to bed and finish off the long day by reading Haruki Murakami’s short story, “The Year of Spaghetti” from his new book of short stories Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. As you may know from two previous posts (Noruwei no Mori and Haruki Murakami), I am very much a fan of the Japanese novelist. In any event, this story is about a guy who spends an entire year cooking pasta for himself everyday, seven days a week, and always eats the pasta by himself. As a matter of fact, he believes that pasta should be eaten by oneself in solitude. When I read the following lines, a huge smile formed stretched across my face (emphasis added in bold):

“Every time I sat down to a plate of spaghetti –especially on a rainy afternoon — I had the distant feeling that somebody was about to knock on my door. The person I imagined about to visit me was each time different. Sometimes stranger, sometimes someone I knew. Once it was a girl with slim legs whom I had dated at school, and once it was myself from a few years back, come to pay a visit. And one time it was none other than William Holden, with Jennifer Jones on his arm . . . Not one of these people, though, actually ventured into my apartment. They hovered just outside the door, without knocking, like fragments of memory, and then slipped away.”

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October 8, 2006 · 8:51 pm

Thanksgiving and Christmas Caroles

Evelyn D. Bergmann

I fully recognize that it is much too early to be discussing Christmas caroles, but it IS autumn and I have been thinking about Christmas Caroles. The thing is, I love autumn. It is my favorite season, at least at home in DC/MD. At home, the trees change color to burnt reds, browns, and oranges. The night air also carries a smokey, burnt scent. In Madrid, I don’t get the same romantic and nostalgic feel that is so comforting in the fall. There is no Holloween. There is no Thanksgiving. And finally, although they do play some American Christmas caroles, it just isn’t the same. Actually, it never really is ever the same. I am sure that if I were in the States, Thanksgiving and Christmas wouldn’t be the same either, just as Holloween ceased being special for me when I was probably 12 or 13. Nevertheless, when nothing else is left, I still rejoice in listening to my favorite Christmas caroles. Why? Beware, this is long and boring, and this is why:

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October 8, 2006 · 10:49 am

Jamón Part IV: An Alternative Explanation

Jamoncito Part IV

A few months ago in an attempt to solve the mystery behind why there are so many legs of ham everywhere in Spain and yet there are so few visible pigs, I revealed what may be a massive Jamón Conspiracy (see also, Parts II and III). And Last night while driving around in circles looking for parking with my friends Cobra and Berga, I discovered that there just might be a fourth explanation. Everytime I go into a bar or a supermarket, and I see severed, cured pig legs, I start doing the math. For every 4 legs (two paletillas and two jamones), you are missing one big pig. And as Cobra, Berga, and I were driving around, we kept passing small bars that were packed like sardines with legs of ham hanging everywhere. Then, it finally occurred to me why there were so many pig legs and yet no pigs in sight. If they didn’t cut off the legs and just left the entire pig, then there wouldn’t be any room in these tiny bars for all of the customers. Of course, that’s why they cut the legs off. They desperately need the space. It’s a resource issue. Just imagine going into a bar for tapas and it is full of huge Iberian pigs hanging from the ceiling. The only solution they could reasonably come up with was to discard everything but the front and hind legs. Sacrifice the bodies for greater leg room. Nevertheless, this doesn’t explain where the rest of the pig is hiding.

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October 7, 2006 · 7:24 pm

The Lounge and the Old DC Days

I just ran across this Thievery Corporation video of “Lebanese Blond“. You can see flashes of some of the old regulars from those evenings at Eighteen Street Lounge, plus shots of Massachusetts Avenue in DC (and what I believe to be is Dumbarton’s Oaks). It’s not a very high budget video, but reminds me of the old days.

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October 6, 2006 · 3:33 pm

Frase de la Semana

Iwa Jima

Explicando porque recibió un balonazo en la cara hoy en el partidillo entre el Black Power y los Huevos Fritos (en las Jornadas de Fútbol), don JA Arribas dijo que se sacrificaba todo por la empresa. Cuando le explicamos que todos los jugadores de ambos equipos eran de la misma empresa, respondió con la frase de la semana: “Mi equipo es mi empresa.”

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October 5, 2006 · 9:21 am

La “p” de Filadelfia y la “i” de Hysidro

Son Goku

Hace tiempo que no escribo nada en español en este blog. Como intenté contar esta historia ayer a Hysidro (curioso ser gallego y tener un nombre griego) pero él no quiso hacerme ningún caso, he decido ponerla aquí por escrito. Puede ser que le molestó el hecho de que entre las palabras “estupendo” y “estúpido” solo hay un par de letras. En fin, ya la podrá leer aquí cuando le de la gana. Pues, mi historia tiene que ver con aquel juego estupendo que se hace por teléfono con las operadoras de soporte al cliente. No es una historia de déjà vu sino de “flashback” (palabra que, junto con “foreshadowing” no sé traducir). La historia y su flashback ocurrieron así:

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October 4, 2006 · 5:20 pm

Déjà vu and Catch-22

Schiele: Autumn tree in movement

That ryhmes! In any event, in my previous post on Extra-sensory Perception, I allude to the psychological phenomenon of déjà vu. But from Catch-22, I also learned about its accompanying jamais vu and presque vu. Here are two relevant quotes from Catch-22 that illusrate these concepts:

The subtle, recurring confusion between illusion and reality that was characteristic of paramnesia fascinated the chaplain, and he knew a number of things about it. He knew, for example, that it was called paramnesia, and he was interested as well in such corollary optical phenomena as jamais vu, never seen, and presque vu, almost seen.”

The episode of the naked man in the tree at Snowden’s funeral mystified [the Chaplain] thoroughly. It was not deja vu, for at the time he had experienced no sensation of ever having seen a naked man in a tree at Snowden’s funeral before. It was not jamais vu, since the apparition was not of someone, or something, familiar appearing to him in an unfamiliar guise. And it was certainly not presque vu, for the chaplain did see him. “

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October 3, 2006 · 9:57 am

Lyle Lovett and Extra-sensory Perception

I am not much of a believer in the paranormal or in psychics, or at least I do not spend any time thinking about them. Nevertheless, I have noticed that whenever I think of somebody or wonder why I haven’t heard from them in a long time, I suddenly run into them, receive a call, or an email. I suppose this is could be labelled telepathy, a form of extra-sensory perception. For example, on Saturday night while I was falling asleep, I was thinking about someone (who I barely know) totally at random, and when I woke up, I had an email from her.

Last night, out of the blue, I started thinking about Lyle Lovett, one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Lyle has a beautiful voice and a strange face. Unfortunately, most people associate Lyle with his brief marriage to Julia Roberts or as some obscure country singer. Consequently, I don’t have many people with whom I can share my appreciation of his music. I did a search on youtube to see if I could find a video of him singing, and found this one below of Lyle’s version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Flying Shoes” from Lyle’s CD Step inside this House. When I woke up this morning, I had an email from my brother recommending that I get my hands on a Van Zandt CD. Coincidence or ESP?

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