En las últimas semanas, el Comité que concede el Premio al Mejor Compañero de Trabajo de la Semana ha tomado unas mini vacaciones y no ha concedido ningún galardón. Algunos preguntarán ¿por qué? Aquí tenéis la respuesta . . .
Dance like Me
Melissa Levine is one of the most talented people I know. We went to high school together, and in the past few years I have rediscovered her via email. If you happen to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, you really should check out her one-woman show, “Dance like Me“. She is hysterical!
Dance Like Me is a one-woman show about a 14-year-old girl caught in the crossfire between her Jewish mother, her Argentine dance teacher, and a rebellious high school boy she can’t help but adore. It’s 1986, and Melissa Levine is 14. She dreams of pursuing her passion for dance, but a few things stand in her way. Her body, for one. Why won’t it cooperate with conventional notions of beauty? Her mother, for another. Why must she meddle in every aspect of her daughter’s life? And then there’s David, a reckless high school boy who attracts Melissa toward a risky life of fast cars, parties, drugs, and sex. What does he want—and why doesn’t he want it from Melissa? Join Melissa as she returns to the brutal landscape of junior high school to explore where it all went wrong—and to recover the joy she lost there. Here’s more info:
Filed under Friends / Family
Kids and dogs
I am sitting outside in a garden working on my computer, and I can hear little kids playing. They are yelling out unintelligible sentences that most people would consider cute. This is something that is beginning to bother me. Why do kids get away with so much (and all the attention)? You see a kid walking around like a drunkard, slurring speech, and everyone says, “oh, how cute.” The same thing happens with dogs. Dogs get all excited and jump up on you, lick you, wag their tails. If I were to do the same thing, I would be locked up. Is this fair? Is this right? Why do kids and dogs get away with behaving in a socially unacceptable manner? The more I think about it . . .
Filed under Digressions
A Rose by any other name would still be a Rose
Declara Pablo Neruda en Explico algunas cosas, “Preguntaréis, Y dónde están las lilas? / Y la metafísica cubierta de amapolas? / Y la lluvia que a menuda golpeaba / sobre sus palabras llenándolas / de de agujeros y pájaros?” Y yo me imagino que mis lectores (los pocos, los valientes) estarán preguntando, ¿y la Rose Superstar por dónde andará? ¿Dónde está aquella admiración semanal dedicada al ídolo del baloncesto femenino en estas páginas?
Grave Error pide a sus lectores que tengan paciencia, que comprendan que la liga está de vacaciones. Sin embargo, en breve tendremos noticias importantes. Eso esperamos.
Pero si el lector insiste en preguntar por la Rose, dejaré que conteste Shakespeare por mí, “What is in a name? A rose by any other name would still be a rose and smell as sweet“.
Filed under Rose Superstar
European Data Retention Laws: Not such a “Fine Balance”
There has been much criticism of the Patriot Act by Europeans (as well as by Americans), and most of it rightly so. One problem is that in Europe, similar legislation is being passed both on the local level and at the European Union level as well. These are know as Data Retention Laws or are often clauses hidden inside the Data Protection and Privacy Laws. For a good description of the dangers of these laws, see this post from Digital Rights Ireland. In general, the government, when passing legislation that limits the privacy rights of its citizens, must strike a balance between the national security interests and those of its citizens as individuals. Now, I am no expert on US Constitutional Law (and in particular on the First and Fourth Amendments), but using a strictly US legal analysis of these laws, there are serious procedural concerns with regards to the infringement of citizens’ fundamental rights. Here is how I reason through these issues:
Filed under Essays
Jamón: What nobody wants to admit
I have been living in Spain now for almost 6 years, and I have always found Spaniard’s blind devotion to jamón (cured pigs legs) to be rather curious. You often witness Spaniards declare “no hay nada como un jamón” (there is nothing like jamón). Every time I hear someone make such a sweeping statement of idolotry for the flesh of a pig’s leg, I think these people have most likely had one slice too many (hence, the extremely low birth rate in Spain). I can easily think of a dozen things in life that are more valuable to me than deli meat or food in general. And over time, I have even grown to abhore dried pork legs. Having said this, I also must admit that for the past 6 months I have actually begun having my first cravings for jamón.
But my personal relationship to jamón is not at issue in this post. Rather this post explores what I suspect to be an unknown conspiracy behind the Spanish delicacy. I have brought it up on numerous occassions in the past few days at work, and no one (with the sole exception of Martha who happens to be from Colombia, not Spain) seems to be concerned . That in and of itself concerns me. Why doesn’t anyone want to question the obvious? What are they trying to hide? Please permit me to explain . . .
Filed under Jamón Conspiracy, Living la vida española
El Mundo al rescate
Normalmente son las personas quienes se preocupan por el bienestar del mundo (aunque la mayoría de ellas pasan del él totalmente). Sin embargo, hoy ha sido el Mundo quien se preocupó por las peronas. Y cuando digo Mundo, me refiero al Mundo Reactivo. Y caundo digo que se ha preocupado, digo que se ha molestado en echar un cable a seleccionar y a pedir la comida de hoy en FON.
Normalmente, tenemos equipos para cada día laboral que se dedican a elegir la comida para todos (así no perdemos el tiempo saliendo a la calle). Sin embargo, hoy el equipo (en el cual me encuentro yo) estaba muy liado y despistado. Parecía que no iba a cumplir con sus obligaciones. Pero en el momento de verdad, el Mundo Reactivo (aquel segoviano sin piedad hacia los puercos que devora hasta sus almas) tomó la riendas y pidió la comida. Yo, personalmente, tenía otros planes de almuerzo fuera de la oficina y no pude disfrutar de su menu del día. En fin, le doy las gracias por el marrón. Thanks!
Filed under FON
Las tres Ps, regla vital
Un gran amigo mío, un encantador de serpientes nativo de las Rías, ha confirmado que entre el parlez-vous y el putiferío solo hay un paso, el paripé. Son las tres Ps. Se empieza con el parlez-vous, después viene el paripé, y al final todo acaba convirtiéndose en un putiferío. ¿Qué se le va a hacer? Es la P.P.P. La misma historia de siempre.
Filed under Digressions, Living la vida española
It’s not laziness, it’s intense contemplation
Sometimes people confuse a prolonged, intense, profound, and exhaustive contemplative state with laziness. Not me. I recognize and practice the art of active and purposeful inertia. While many dedicate their free time to mental stagnation and escapism through movement, I sit quietly . . . in thought. For example, I am capable of spending an entire Saturday from 8:00 in the morning until midnight, sitting quietly. This is not laziness. It is activity. My mind begins working and the rest of the body shuts down. By the evening, I am exhausted and go to bed for a good night’s rest so that I may sit intensely the following day.
You see, while some people are hyper-active, I am hyper-pensive. While some spend the day cleaning, mowing the lawn, playing golf (that I-hate-my-family sport and therefore avoid them first thing in the morning on my day off), I am concentrating. Some avoid the world through activity, I confront it through thought. Yeah, I may not do the dishes in an entire week. But, I have spent hours thinking about those dishes, and I have witnessed that washing them today or tomorrow or the next day, really makes no difference. It is an activity that does not add real value to the world around me. This is not laziness. It is a heightened state of awareness. It’s not leaving things in a mess, it’s understanding the irrelevance of that mess. So, please do not nag me. Do not disturb me. I am much too busy for that right now.
Filed under Digressions
La versión de Eva Blondie
Acabo de terminar de leer el manuscrito de La versión de Eva Blondie, novela ganadora del Premio Istar, escrita por mi poetisa Beatriz Russo. Como describo en el post anterior, he leido esta novela con admiración, no solo porque conozco y voy conociendo a su autora, sino también porque yo quisiera escribir así y de crear semejante historia de los riesgos del amor. En fin, es una novela fantástica de un valor literario y sicológico tremendo. Esperamos ver esta novela publicada pronto para que la podamos disfrutar todos.
Al terminar la novela, en seguida me acordé de este poema, de Neruda por supuesto:
Filed under Digressions, Friends / Family
Grave Error 
