A pesar de mi gran deseo de que cada uno de mis amigos se fuera a casa a leerse un libro tranquilamente, mis amigos (salvo el Gran Huja) me obligaron a salir. Lo que no supe fue que mi querida amiga, la bella Laurita, con la colaboración de Berga y Neska, había venido desde Úbeda (Patrimonio de la Humanidad) para hacerme una gran sorpresa.
Ya con el pase de los años he perdido esa ilusión juvenil de celebrar mi cumpleaños. Sin embargo, Continue reading
Filed under Friends / Family
This last few days, I finished reading two novels which could be described as feminist literature. The first one, Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles, I must admit, was a total enigma to me. In a sense, it reminded me of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. While I understand its central theme of women’s struggle for finding themselves in a world that imposes upon them a series of debilitation and irrational anxieties, I still haven’t quite figured the rest of it out.
Next, I read Nuriddin Farah’s first novel, From a Crooked Rib, written in 1968 (yet still very revelant today). This story tells of a Somali woman’s desperate struggle for freedom, a struggle that is based on her love for life. Ironically, she lives in a male dominated world that treats women as inferiors, subjects them to female genital mutilation (in particular infibulation), and while she flees her tribal lifestyle to avoid a forced marriage to an older man, she still believes that her only option for freedom lies within marriage. Even worse, the women in society also promote and perpetuate gender inequality.
God created woman from a crooked rib
and anyone who trieth to straighten it,
breaketh it
It never ceases to surprise me Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Essays, Literature
When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody’s help in any way
But now these days are gone and I’m not so sefl-assured.
I don’t relate to these lyrics from the classic Beatles’ song “Help”. When I was younger I was not more self-assured and now that I am older, I am not now less self-assured than before. Furthermore, if anything, I no longer need someone else’s help. As a matter of fact, I think that when we’re young we have a greater dependence on others, precisely for the reason that we are not comfortable with out insecurities. Here is what I mean. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
Ya es una eternidad desde la última actualización de los motes en FON. Tenemos RastaFoneros, MoFoNeros y un poco de tó. ¡Como cambian las cosas! Continue reading
Filed under FON
Anoche fuimos algunos de la vieja guardia (sólo Neska que es una recien nacida) de FON a cenar para conocer un poco mejor a una nueva incorporación al equipo. En principio no tendría que sorprenderse ella con nuestro grupito compuesto por la Ninja, Borja el Bookie, Kung Fu Jordi, Roberto Largo, Neska, la Moniac, o el que simplemente llamamos Teo. A lo mejor sí por el Padrino argentino impredecible, Santi.
Al final, nosotros en FON somos gente normal. No somos tan freakies. Simplemente amamos un poco más al WiFi que los demás. Somos cada uno personas que están buscando su huequito en este mundo, donde pueden ser felices y quizás con un poco de suerte también hacer felices a los demás. Y sobre todo, nos gustan los abrazos fuertes.
No nos falta ni coraje, ni corazón, ni cerebro. Sin embargo, si hablamos en estos términos del Mago de Oz, habrá una sola persona que le habrá podido, quizás, asustar a nuestro nuevo fichaje. Continue reading
Filed under FON
On Friday afternoon after a memorable Jornada de Fútbol, I began to notice a strange brewing occur inside. The next 24 hours were spent cramped up (quite literally) within my espresso machine of a body in the coffee bar of my apartment, trickling out café solo after café solo. This all brought me back to the infamous Human Espresso Machine of the Summer of 1996. At the time, I often wondered whether I would ever be the same. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
Have you ever been in love? You spend all day at work, dreaming of nothing more than arriving at home to be with that special someone. Any absence from your beloved is flooded with thoughts of reunification. In a crowd, a mere glance across the room rings of complicity. You are dying for the escape, to rush to your secure, shared habitat to rejoice in total intimacy. No matter its size, your bed is your common palace and marks the territory of your kingdom.
Have you ever been in love? You know your beloved is not perfect. But you have accepted her faults as inherently intertwined with her attributes. You crave them all, you anticipate them all. You reach and find her, you close your eyes and see her, you sleep and dream of her.
Have you ever been in love? You never get angry with her, for you have already accepted your beloved in her essence. You do not need to ask for forgiveness, for you have been accepted in your essence. You have faith and you are trusted.
Have you ever been in love? And if these are the signs of love, Continue reading
Filed under Digressions
On Sunday, I was suffering from a variety of unrelated (I believe) ailments including my seasonal allergies (soar throat, headache, and general congestion) and some stomach virus. Maybe some day I will tell the story of when I was temporarily converted into a human espresso machine in Barcelona.
In any event, I decided to forgoe reading and spent the day watching In the Mood for Love and 2046, two films by Wong Kar-Wai. I used to be a huge Wong Kar-Wai fan and have his entire film collection on DVD. After Sunday’s marathon, I would have to say that In the Mood for Love is his best film. Continue reading
Filed under Digressions, Essays
This weekend, I finished reading Amin Maalouf’s Gardens of Light, a historical novel that traces the life of Mani, a Third Century Persian prophet who preached what is today known as Manichaeism. With this book, I have completed reading all of Maalouf’s novels (save one). I have also decided to read only one more “Arab” writer and then move on to other regions. Continue reading
Filed under Essays, Literature
Grave Error 