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Random thoughts from an unconventional Spaniard in the States

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La marca en la magdalena

Un ensayo muy interesante de Manuel Vicent, publicado hoy en El Pais. Me da la impresión de que Savater estaría muy de acuerdo. Desde mi punto de vista, se trata de una reflexión aterradoramente acertada.

* * * * *

La marca


MANUEL VICENT
30/09/2007

Antes de que el niño llegue al uso de razón, su cerebro ya ha sido inoculado con todos los elementos fundamentales de los que no podrá desprenderse a lo largo de la vida. La papilla de cereales irá acompañada con canciones de cuna, que hablarán de ángeles, nubes blancas y dulces sueños, con palabras pronunciadas en una lengua que ya será para siempre indeleble. Éste es el primer ingrediente de la magdalena de Proust. De las cuatro esquinas de la cama los ángeles saltarán directamente al fondo del subconsciente de la criatura y enseguida llegará también la figura del demonio junto con el miedo a la oscuridad. El complejo de Edipo o de Electra comenzará a desarrollarse cuando un desconocido la tome en brazos y le pregunte a quién quiere más, a papá o a mamá, exigiéndole una respuesta súbita. El árbol de la ciencia del bien y del mal a cuya sombra germinará l a inteligencia, está lejos todavía. Durante los primeros siete años, el cerebro del niño se halla a merced de todas las sensaciones y con ellas la magdalena de Proust irá tomando condimento, volumen y perfume. Las lecciones del catecismo, las caricias maternales, el pan de la alacena, las primeras advertencias del padre, el fuego del infierno, el aprender a atarse los zapatos, el volteo de campanas, la historia sagrada, los primeros juegos, los símbolos de la patria, las banderas, el equipo de fútbol, los himnos, los cuadernos, el primer castigo, el álbum de cromos, los escudos, el primer premio, el amor de los hermanos, las primeras lágrimas, la tarta de chocolate de cumpleaños y envuelto en papel de regalo, Dios p ropiamente dicho formando el sabor de la magdalena de Proust, que un día lejano ascenderá a la superficie mojada con camomila. La Iglesia considera que este territorio le pertenece por derecho divino, no está dispuesta a negociarlo con nadie y lo defiende a cara de perro contra el Estado. Aparte del negocio de la enseñanza, la Iglesia sabe muy bien que cualquier sensación irracional que se acuñe en la virginidad de la conciencia se convertirá en una marca imborrable. Cuando la inteligencia ocupe el córtex del cerebro y el individuo trate de desmontar todas las piezas que constituyen su espíritu, le será imposible separar la razón y la creencia, la educación y la memoria. A la Iglesia le importa muy poco lo que aquel niño haga a lo largo de la vida, porque está segura de que en una tarde de melancolía le emergerá Dios dentro de una magdalena y al final, aunque solo sea como cadáver, espera que vuelva al templo.


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Quien fuera

Posiblemente una de las canciones más bonitas que se han escrito nunca. Sencilla, humilde y al mismo tiempo de una belleza sublime, directa al corazón.



Dedicada a una de las personas que más quiero en este mundo y que nació un día como hoy. También sencilla, también humilde, también bellísima; todo corazón. Feliz cumpleaños, mamá.

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The "other" Gate

The other side to every story: beware the charms of beauty. This modern day iron siren keeps on luring the unhappy with its silent song. Fog mourns in white.


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Daily news: Ahmadinejad dixit

Alejandro Amenabar, Reinaldo Arenas, Marlon Brando, Lord Byron, Truman Capote, Luis Cernuda, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michel Foucault, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Alan Turing, Paul Verlaine, Andy Warhol, Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, ...

It is true: there are no homosexuals in Iran… they might do some good, though.
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Noticias de actualidad: confusion en NYC

Ramon Calderón, presidente del Real Madrid, fue retenido la pasada madrugada en un aeropuerto de Nueva York al ser confundido con un delincuente.

Curiosamente, en el mismo vuelo fue también retenida Shakira, al ser confundida con una cantante de éxito y Noam Chomsky, al sospecharse que podría tener más de 60 años (y eso a pesar de que, en realidad, nació en 1928).

Por fortuna, el malentendido se aclaró y los tres pudieron abandonar el aeropuerto al cabo de unas pocas horas.
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A trip to Yosemite, or the boy who happened to work in a shop

5.15am: time to wake up. Being extra careful in order to bother your three roommates at the youth hostel as little as possible, you do your best to get dressed and head for the lobby. After a while, the tour guide arrives and you get in the van with your partners for the day.

Heading out from San Francisco, you cross the Bay Bridge and enjoy the beautiful views of the city at dawn. Feeling still a bit groggy from the lack of sleep, you hesitate for a second between dream and reality.


All of a sudden, a bunch of metallic structures appear on the horizon. No, they are not the AT-AT walkers from Star Wars, although some people say that they were the source of Lucas’s inspiration a long, long time ago in a galaxy not so far away.

Inevitably, you fall asleep after a while. When you wake up, you find yourself surrounded by mountains, trees and little creeks. Yosemite awaits.

The tour guides starts reciting the usual compilation of encyclopedic facts about the place, including a story about how a bunch of explorers where - literally - “the first people to arrive at the place” and how, when they did, they actually decided to name the place after the word that - literally - “the native Indians who lived there at the time” kept on repeating at them. Americans… you simply have to love them! ;-)

Anyway, once inside the park you are taken to a place called “Inspiration Point”. Feelings of wonderment and awe suddenly arise. Possibly one of the most beautiful sights that you’ve had the pleasure to enjoy in your whole life, (in my case, mainly rivaled by those from the Grand Canyon a couple of months ago). Natural magnificence at its best.

Next stop is at El Capitan, a giant rock I-can’t-remember- how-many-times bigger than Gibraltar that becomes the object of desire for legions of climbers every year.

After this, you have your lunch in an area near the waterfalls and the visitor center. Unfortunately, the falls are almost dry at this time of the year. Still, the place is total bliss.


Back to the van. Time to visit the forest of giant sequoias, some of which apparently get to be the biggest living beings on earth. When you try to embrace one of them, you realize that they are not precisely small, as shown in the picture.



Before you leave the park, you go through the only dark episode of the trip: a ferocious, angry, California bear spots your van and starts running after you. Luckily enough, he is more into chocolate than into human flesh and you manage to bribe him with a bunch of M&Ms and a couple of Kit-Kats! Scary, isn't it? ;-)

Back in San Francisco, the long day closes. A hot shower feels great, as does a nice meal at a local diner. The place feels as cheesy as they get: you know the picture, decoration and music from the 60s or the 70s, everything seems to have been taken out of a movie, Grease for example, including the waitress’s uniforms (although I don’t remember the waitresses in those movies being Mexican… after all, times are a changing! ;-). Wow, does it feel great or what? A greasy gigantic burger with French fries and lots of mayo and ketchup; the quintessence of unhealthy decadent delight. It even has some avocado… must be the Californian touch. You simply love it, although both the milkshakes and the coke with vanilla ice-cream floats seem a bit too much and you decide to pass on them. After all, everything has a limit, and quintessential, unhealthy, decadent delights are no exception.

No longer hungry, you decide to go for a movie. Stardust is your choice, and you don’t regret it. Certainly, you wouldn’t call it a masterpiece… but hey, it provides entertainment for a couple of hours, and it makes you laugh at several points with a rather British sense of humor.



Even better, ‘Stardust’ also provides a memorable quote that will survive for many years inside your brain:
“There are shop boys, and then there are boys who happen to work in a shop”

23 hours have passed and you go back to your bunk bed at the hostel, where a question taunts your dreams: which kind of boy are you?

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Francisco in San Francisco

At some point during my visit to San Francisco, I happened to read some promotional banner in which the place was referred to as “everyone’s favorite city”. Unlike the “The greatest city in America” motto that is engraved in many of Baltimore’s street benches, the SF slogan seemed rather accurate to me at the time, since all the people I know who have ever been to San Francisco have told me that they simply love the place.

I must confess that I was initially somewhat intrigued by this general consensus, which was actually one of the reasons that helped me take a solo trip to unveil the wonders of the city. Now that I have - as it is often said – “been there, done that and worn the t-shirt” (or, in this case, the hooded sweater, which is much better suited to the Bay area windy moods ;-) I feel obliged to eagerly join the legion of fans who have been seduced by the charms of Fog City.





You may be wondering what the fuss is all about. Well, to begin with, the food over there is great and relatively inexpensive, with seafood, sushi and ice-creams being my personal local picks. The bay area, due to its peculiar geography and its climate offers sights that are incredibly beautiful. I was amazed by the beauty of the sky at sunset, when the horizon seems to be whimsically colored to perfection using a palette that evolves slowly over time and space in flirtatious harmony. The panoramic views from elevated points around the city, namely the Coit Tower and Twin Peaks, were well worth the climbing and reminded me of Lisbon in spirit, as did the well-known cable cars that hastily dwell upon the city slopes. The Golden Gate bridge brought back memories from both the Eiffel Tower - in the sense of a metallic engineering colossus - and the Statue of Liberty - in the sense of the distinctive sign that welcomed immigrants who sailed to America throughout decades. Alcatraz smelt of gangsters, repression and cold decadence, but also of legend and universal significance. Castro and Haight-Ashbury oozed freedom and stood proud as witnesses from less (or was it more?) civilized times, when the power of love overcame the love of power. The Asian Art Museum, the DeYoung Museum, the SFMOMA, Mission Dolores, the Japanese Gardens and Legion d’Honneur are all jewels on the crown of a multicultural diversity that, in this case as in many others throughout history, has played a major role as an agent of prosperity…

I could probably go on mentioning further virtues, but I guess that in the end it all comes down to a feeling: San Francisco feels good. When you are there, it is easier to feel happy, and when people are happy they are more likely to be gentle to each other. Of course, when people are gentle to each other, it is easier for them to feel happy, and so the feeling is reignited. The circle is closed:

Francisco *heart* San Francisco.

p.s. Thanks to Victor and Rene for their priceless info and ideas that helped me prepare the trip.
:-)

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Geographical egocentrism

Now, is this an interesting picture or what? Francisco Sanchez at Sanchez street in San Francisco. I guess this is as bad as toponym-inspired visual puns involving my name can get…

;-)

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Belated 9/11: Cita con Angeles

"Septiembre aúlla todavía
su doble saldo escalofriante
todo sucede un mismo día
gracias a un odio semejante."

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If you're going to San Francisco...

The short trips around the US with my brother described in previous post took place during the month of July. August was, on the other hand, a rather uneventful month for me... I just stayed in Baltimore and and worked on my research all the time. For this first week of September, I have decided to take a break before the new courses start and I have gone on a new trip, this time all by myself. Can you guess the new destination, from which I am writing this post right now?


Hint: A truly beautiful city, with a bridge as famous as its rock, where people are gentle, the weather is nice all year long and - more importantly - where I can reasonably expect the guy from Starbucks to know how to spell my first name correctly and without hesitation...
;-)
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Ain't no passing craze...

On a wednesday like today, a year ago, this blog was born. One year and counting!

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Last stop: a taste of the big apple

During the last weekend of David's visit, we took the greyhound bus to New York City, where we rejoined Anette one week after our adventure in Las Vegas.

Since we had covered most of the typical tourist attractions in previous visits, this time we decided to go for a few activities a bit more "off the beaten track".

We started by taking the metro to the Bronx, where we visited the Botanical Gardens.


Right accross the street from the gardens, we went to the Bronx zoo, where we had a good time looking at the exotic fauna (both inside and outside the cages ;-).

In the evening, in was time to go for a vegetarian Dim Sum in Chinatown, followed by a concert in Central Park and a nice walk around Times Square.


On Sunday morning, we went kayaking on the Hudson river. A great experience, even though our pants ended up pretty wet after stepping back onto the shore.

We regained our strength after the kayaking thanks to an awesome Korean barbeque that made up for David's first truly vegetarian experience from the day before, and we ended up the day with a visit to the Neues Gallery, at the Museum Mile on the Upper East Side.

Back in Baltimore, a "last supper" at a local fancy restaurant wrote down the last page of David's visit. An unforgettable month enjoyed to the max !

De todas formas, no fue un punto y final, sino un punto y seguido... Hasta la proxima, hermanito! ;-)
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