If political transition in Venezuela were only that simple …
Category Archives: Digressions
Names and the State
About a year ago, I posted about a women who was denied citizenship in Spain because the state refused to recognize the validity of her first name. Well, I just read a news story about how an Itlalian court would not allow a family to name their child Friday. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
Recycled Post of the Week: My Favorite Things
This weekend, to avoid the cold and the shoppers, I assumed the fetal position and read from cover to cover Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky. I had seen the movie a couple of times and had started and abandoned the novel once before, so I decided to give it a second go.
There is a well-known quote from the story that reads,
… we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
This reminded me of something that I had written before in a post entitled, “Real and Personal Property and Possession” on how the only property that we ever really possess is the intangible: Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Literature
Before and After
Sometimes it feels as if time stands still or passes by slowly without us knowing it. Then other times, we put time into perspective. That is what is nice (or cruel) about capturing time in images. Between the left and the right, there are twenty-three years.
The first shot was actually taken by my orthodontist. He wanted to do his own before and after shots to measure the improvement. I didn’t keep the pimple/puberty-stricken close-up from only two years later. Regardless, and I am not sure whether my dentist is to blame, I faired better as a younger person. Nevertheless, from an artistic stand point at least (thanks my “lady friend”), I’ll go with the latter image. And don’t let the shading fool you, I still have a full head of hair.
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family
The Vatican Croquet
My friend, the infamous Manuocho, has just come out with this video entitled “The Vatican Croquet”. I really don’t know what the video is all about, but I like it. Manuocho and I are thinking about joining forces in a unified effort to bring to life another compelling story: “The Portero”. I won’t give any of the details away at this point, but it might be big. It might be revolutionayr. It might never happen.
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family
Ali and Nino
Contrary to what I might have said a few weeks ago, I finished Ali and Nino before the year’s end. Coincendentally, I started 2007 off with Samarkand that deals with 11th Century Persia but also briefly covers pre-World War I Iran, and ended the year with Ali and Nino that commences on the eve of World War I in Baku, Azerbaijan.
I used to have a friend who would also say after reading a book that it was great except for the last page, and actually, I would say the same thing for Ali and Nino. Regardless of the last page, it is a wonderful novel for anyone interested in Middle Eastern or European history. Azerbaijan is especially interesting as it falls on the fault line between Europe, Russia, Turkey, and Iran, and the novel does a great job of putting that threshold into prospective. It is also interesting is to see how much the world has changed since World War I and how much has not changed.
Finally, the author, Liv Nussmbaum (under the pen name Kurban Said), is a novel himself. Tom Reiss has recently published a biography about Nussmbaum, entitled The Orientalist – Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life.
Filed under Digressions, Literature
Christmas in Madrid
Yesterday afternoon, we took a long walk through Madrid to look at the Christmas decorations. The Plaza Mayor’s Christmas market was full of the traditional Nativity Scene (called a Belén meaning Bethlehem) figurines, but there were also many other non-Christmas articles that could be purchased like Elvis wigs and other more Halloween-esque costumes. Don’t ask because I don’t have an answer.
Then we walked back towards the Puerta del Sol, down towards Cibeles, up to Colón, then towards the Glorieta de Bilbao, and finally to Chamberí. The streets were more crowded, almost unbearably so, than I have ever seen before either during navidades or any other time of the year.
As promised, I made this low-budget video to compete with Paris’ Christmas lights. Yes, that’s Elvis singing “If Everyday Was Like Chrismas”. I also snuck into the video two local images from local bars: hundreds of legs of Jamón and the typically Madrid snack of Bocadillos de Calamares (squid sandwiches).
Filed under Digressions, Living la vida española
Recycled Post of the Week: The Faith of the Heretic
Christmas time is here and that has its ups and downs. There is the mad race to finish off the year with the work-related and present-shopping stress. There is also all of the corporate and commercial pressure to make sure that we meet those aforementioned obligations. And for those of us who live abroad or far from our families, we can’t forget the Holiday season highway and airways traffic. It’s almost enough to forgoe of Christmas altogether.
It is almost a cliché that the Christmas spirit of the young saviour’s birth has been prostituted to corporations. For me, though, it is not the saviour’s birth that makes this time of year special. The more and more I think about it, Christianity as a religion has had little intrinsic value to offer. Christianity’s claims to be centered on forgiveness and sacrifice, on a new altruistic concept of love, and on a superior morality are simply unsustainable in history, scripture, philosophy or even in comparative religious studies. In that vain, I dedicate this Recycled Post of the Week to one I wrote in September 2006, entitled “Walter Kaufmann: The Faith of the Heretic“, about an essay of the same name written by Kaufmann precisely on how he rejected Christianity as a child. It is definitely worth a read.
Having said this, I do believe there is something very special about the way children feel during the season that justifies it all, and that is the special something that keeps getting me excited about Christmas every year. It’s not about presents, it’s about “having yourself a merry little Christmas” where those dear to us are near to us and our troubles seem far away. It is about everything that is special about being a child, a parent, or a grandparent. For the moment, I am still into being a child and a grandchild. It really is Christianity’s saving grace.
Filed under Digressions
(Kind of) A Winner
I have written before about my trials and tribulations with the Lottery. Well, guess what? I just won €89 (that’s $130 for those who still use antiquated greenbacks). Out of five numbers and two stars in the Euromillions, I correctly guessed three numbers and both stars. Because I didn’t get all of the seven digits on the dot, I didn’t win the €15 million. I used birth dates and ages for choosing the numbers, but I guess am still missing two people with the right data.
So where does that leave me? I suppose I should celebrate with my small bounty, but I still kind of feel like Marlon Brando’s character in On the Waterfront, “I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody. Instead of a bum.”
Filed under Digressions
Christmas Lights in Paris
I suppose it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I made this silly little video of the Christmas lights on the Champs-Élysées on Saturday night. I guess I did it as an excuse to play this Frank Sinatra rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas“.
Hopefully next weekend I will have a chance to do another meaningless video of Christmas decorations in Madrid. I think Madrid’s mayor, Ruiz Gallardón, is trying to convert Madrid into a city known for its Christmas “look and feel”. As a matter of fact, Madrid’s holiday lights are actually much more attractive this year than those in Paris. Of course, if Spain is far from complying with Kyoto, I seriouly doubt that the extra electicity needed to light up the town for the holly jolly season is going to help.
Filed under Digressions
Grave Error 