la-novia-oscura
Mon Apr 28 09:23:36 2008
Les recomiendo que lean La novia oscura, una historia de amor y prostitución en un pueblo colombiano, de trabajadores oprimidos por multinacionales petroleras y huelgas violentas, de sueños y muertes violentas.
Hace unos días descubrí una librería en Zürich con libros en español. Ya había leído Delirio y me había gustado así que me decidí por otra obra de Laura Restrepo. No me decepcionó.
Discussionwitches-abroad
Thu Apr 24 20:16:55 2008
I just finished reading Christoph's copy of Terry Pratchett's Witches Abroad. While the book is well written and entertaining, I didn't like it. I found my self struggling to get to the end so that I could return it; I actually read two books, Escribir es vivir and The Fan Man between the time I started and finished this one.
I felt as if I was reading a good joke written over the span of some 300 pages. While the writing is good and I can see why some people like it, I got tired after a while.
If I had enough time to read all the books I'd like to —or, to put it another way, if I didn't have any other books I could read—, I would definitely read all the Discworld novels. Since this is not the case, I will read other books that connect with me more strongly instead.
This is the fifth of the Discworld novels I've read. I also wrote about Wyrd Sisters.
its-so-easy-a-millenium-tribute-to-guns-n-roses
Sun Apr 20 12:28:56 2008
Went to buy some CDs yesterday. Wanted something by the gunners and came by this one, Its So Easy A millenium Tribute To Guns N' Roses. After listening to some of its songs and feeling a bit adventurous, I decided to buy it.
Ah, it's Guns N' Roses all again! :-) It's refreshing.
It has interesting versions of their songs. I specially like Civil War, by One Bad Son. Also interesting are You Could Be Mine, Paradise City and the female-voice version of Patience. Recommended.
Discussion (2)the-fan-man
Sat Apr 19 09:37:53 2008
I just finished reading The Fan Man, the story of Horse Badorties, a stoned hippie musician in New York, man, whose life is made impossible by the landlord and those puerto ricans and their lousy music. Dig this, Maestro Badorties is assembling the Love Chorus, getting 15 year old busted-up strung-out Lower East Side loser chicks to sing beautiful music.
What a refreshing and unique piece of art! Written in the way our stoned protagonist thinks, it had me laughing out loud several times, making people in trams look at me funny. Highly recommended comedy.
kikis-delivery-service
Thu Apr 17 21:04:15 2008
I greatly enjoyed Kiki's Delivery Service, which Dominique brought to the last SRE Movies Night. The story of a 13 years old witch who has to travel to a remote city to find some way to survive and train her witch skills, it is a beautiful movie full of charming scenes and characters. The movie, quite a work of art, conveys its own way of viewing life, which is guaranteed to lift your spirit. I highly recommend it.
escribir-es-vivir
Tue Apr 15 06:29:29 2008
Escribir es vivir es una lectura amena sobre un curso de 20 horas del mismo nombre en el que José Luis Sampedro relata la historia de su vida y cómo escribió sus novelas con reflexiones sobre el papel del autor y su relación con su obra. La recomiendo.
Lleno de anécdotas simpáticas, expone ideas como que se escribe por la simple necesidad de escribir que se lleva dentro (o no se lleva) —y, junto con esto, que se van recolectando ideas gradualmente hasta que el lector se obseciona con un tema y no puede pensar en otra cosa y termina forzado a escribir su obra; que la escritura es una forma de recorrer mundos imaginados y, al comunicarlos a los demás, vivirlos; que ser escritor no es cosa fácil, a él sus obras le costaron varios años de levantarse muy de madrugada, y que en esto la humildad es muy importante; y la importancia de la honestidad en lo que se escribe (más le vale al autor creer lo que está escribiendo, para lo que sirve mucho documentarse muy bien), entre otras.
Irónicamente, no he leido nada más de Sampedro: Miriam me prestó este libro, lo empecé a ojear en el tren y cuando llegué a casa decidí terminarlo. Ahora tengo pendiente leer una o dos de sus novelas.
the-washingtonienne
Sun Mar 30 17:14:53 2008
I enjoyed the unpretentious The Washingtonienne, a light but mildly-entertaining read. While not particularly interesting, I would recommend it as easy reading for, say, an airplane. If you want a good book, this one is not it; if, on the other hand, you just want some cheap shallow fun while you get your tan in a beach in Florida, you should have a go at it.
solaris
Sat Mar 22 19:52:17 2008
I enjoyed Solaris. After having seen both of the movies based on it, I had to read the book.
While I did enjoy the story, there were some things I did not like. I did not like, for example, all the long descriptions of all the different formations in the Solaris' ocean. I also got the feeling that the book begins clearly as a science fiction story but then, almost accidentally, turns into a love story; I think I would have enjoyed it more if it had remained entirely science fiction or if it had started explicitly with the purpose of becoming a love story. As it is, I get the feeling that it doesn't entirely succeed in being as good as it could be as neither: as a science fiction book, I found the ending a bit disappointing —I think it could have done a much better job at exploring the idea of the impossiblity of understanding an alien intelligence—, while as an unusual love story —an area in which I think it had a lot of potential— I think it had way too many unnecessary elements that distracted you from the point, specially in the first half.
I liked Tarkowsky's movie which, while not an easy film to watch, did, in my opinion, a very good job of building on it. It has some beautiful scenes.
That said, I'd recommend the book. It is, all things considered, a very fine story.
norwegian-wood
Sat Mar 22 13:08:59 2008
Norwegian Wood is, so far, my favorite Murakami.
It took me a while to remember who it was who first recommended Murakami to me, back in 2005. Of course, it was Paul. Paul is an old internet friend of mine. He lived in New Jersey, worked in a music store and studied literature. We would talk a lot about music and books, after discovering our tastes were kind of similar. He was a very interesting character: even though he was 100% gringo (he would rather be called gringo than american), he knew as much about latin music as I did.
Sadly, we've completely lost touch. Now that I think about it, Murakami may have been the last recommendation he made to me.
One thing I liked about Norwegian Wood is that, unlike all other Murakami's I've read, it doesn't resort to explicit magic, —sheep gods that take control of people, cats that speak, people that communicate in dreams or magical coincidences—, yet it manages to achieve the same magic effect as the rest. This allowed the story to reach me more strongly than the others (though I would say that Wind-Up Bird Chronicle comes close); I felt strongly identified with some of the characters, more than in other of his novels. I find it a bit ironic that lack of this, one of Murakami's defining characteristics, allowed me to enjoy this book more than the other four I've read by him, but that's just the way it is.
I must also disclaim that it connected to me strongly because of personal reasons, things that I'm going through right now, so my reading may be a little subjective.
All in all, Norwegian Wood is a beautiful tale about love and growing up, which I would recommend.
Discussion (5)short-cuts
Mon Mar 10 11:13:21 2008
I really liked Robert Altman's Short Cuts, which my brother recommended. I strongly echo his recomendation.
Set in the 70s L.A., Short Cuts gets to me as a movie of reconciliation with United States' American culture, a film about how even though people may not always make the correct choices —they cheat on their couples and yell at each other and do some gross things— they are mostly good people, beautiful people, with their own weaknesses, fears, dreams and strengths, often just coping with their own problems; the fact that they do these gross things is often more a reflection of their place in life, the cards they have been dealt, than of the way they would want to be. It allows you to identify with people, even tough they are not as good as they should be and shows examples of cases where people are having strong conflicts but nobody is being evil, they are just missing information about others or misunderstanding them. People can do horrible things but still be beautiful.
That it manages to cast life in this beautiful light while at the same time (1) being a movie where people do disagreeable things instead of a cheesy predictible movie and (2) making it impossible to predict the turns each story is going to take, being full of surprises and unexpected turns (indeed, many of its stories don't having happy endings) made me really enjoy it.
I should put some emphasis on the fact that that is just how it gets to me, a subjective reading. I'm fully aware that, based on 9 short stories by Raymond Carver and lasting 183 minutes, it does have a lot of contents that may allow others to make completely different readings. However, I think this was, at least partially, the intention, as echoed in some of the lyrics. People are just prisoners of their lifes.
All in all, a very good movie. It does a remarkable job of adapting the Carver stories to film, being one of those cases where a movie glows beyond the work it's based on. I'll give it a rating of 9/10.
Last update: 2008-01-27 (Rev 13448)