Ryuichi Sakamoto - "energy flow"

Ceiling lights

 And some mornings you turn on

The ceiling lights 

Just to make a day brighter 

Inside

Of age, of teeth, of best friends ill 

A song plays: it’s M83’s My Tears Are Becoming A Sea

I’m reading RIPE by Sarah Rose Etter 

And the intro to Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

It’s always two cities, two sides the coin, the yin and the yang. Oh, life, you are nothing without death, but I fear you so.

For the water to lay still

I want the hours to stop

For the water to lay still

Like the characters in the books when I close the pages

They living trapped among words, until we again read

I want life to stop slipping away

For tea not get lukewarm

And to see your smile without a frown

without a care

I want Time to stop, every day, at 2 p.m.

And to embrace you forever, under this bridge

debajo del puente
Mission Bay, Bonita Cove beach

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Halloween reading ideas, dark and charming The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Inspired by The Jungle Book, but a ghostly twist, Bod, short for Nobody is a boy raised not by animals but ghosts in an old graveyard; where ghosts from many eras reside. A coming of age tale for children & adults. Flows easy, has funny moments, but many heartfelt lessons for the young & the old. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Neil Gaiman himself, he was a wonderful voice and diction that go perfectly with his genius book. If you are older than 10 years-old, or your 110 years-old eyes or ears still work, I highly recommend you this for a lovely Halloween reading. #TheGraveyardBook #NeilGaiman #Octoberbooks #graveyardbooks #HalloweenBooks

Silver Nitrate & Covid-23

Since I was a young lonely girl, maybe around 7 or 8

I've found refugee in books, before the piano

Before the music, before my cousins, and my friends

There were the books.

Maybe because my mom and I are named both Berenice

We had a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Horror Tales

Of course I read Berenice, and The Black Cat,

The Oblong Box, The Fall of the House of Usher!

I mean, I was not older than 8, but all made horrible sense

and I was hooked... later I switched to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's

Sherlock Adventures, and Agatha Christie, but I was marked for life

Horror, mystery, thrillers, have been the backbone of my love for literature

And now, alone again, about 45 years later,

I heal my Covid-23 wounds, no friends, no school,

just some work, but don't talk to anyone and wear a mask

some fever, headache, cough, no sense of smell!

All bearable, but oh the mental health, the rumination

Can't  go on my beloved walks, can't focus, can't draw...

Yet I discovered now, I can finally READ!

So I am able to grab these frightened eyes that have been staring at me

Since I got the book months ago, can finally be hold in my hands,

and what a fantastic cover this one is, yes finally reading this fantastic book by one of mine

fast-becoming favorite authors ever, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination as she calls herself

but with the deepest knowledge of my ex-beloved city than most authors

who actually live in the city.

This is not my first experience reading Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Mexican Gothic was my first book of hers, and what a superb novel!

Of course, I was into H.P. Lovecraft and other gothic authors too

She did a magnificent job creating the perfect "Mexican" and "Gothic" novel

I have also read Gods of Jade and Shadow, more of a Mayan fantasy book

and Velvet Was The Night, a perfect noir! No horror, no ghosts, just

a beautifully crafted noir film, that raises to the level of a Raymond Chandler novel

Being an student from La UNAM, Velvet Was The Night fast became my

favorite book of hers, but now, here comes Silvia with this uber neat literary bundle

that is Silver Nitrate, it's Mexico City again

And the 90's! Horror movies, metal music, film, sound editing,

runes, spells, magic, witchcraft, ghosts, beepers, an ex-telenovela actor

from yes, Televisa, some evil uppity white people, and yet another fantastic

anti-heroine, full brown Mexican sound editor, horror film aficionado

willing to fight Nazi occultists, and chauvinist bosses and workers

with the same fierce and unapologetic bravery.

What a fantastic book! Thank you Silvia Moreno-Garcia

For making these days of Covid-23 go faster.

You are the coolest, most intelligent contemporary author,

I have read recently.

The most heartful thank you and admiration

From my entire brown Mexican heart to yours!

The superb cover of Silver Nitrate

Silver Nitrate Silver

Drawing hands

This is the second week of my freehand drawing class

We have been drawing a lot of  hands, at first pencil

Last Thursday, we used India ink for the first time

This my second attempt at a hand traced and drawn with pencil, followed with India ink

The background started as a mistake, too dark!

But the brushes coming from the center sort of fixed it

I still need tons of practice, but I am ok with tonight’s practice 

some days

it was yesterday, when

the ghosts of candles

raindrops, windows,

it was green, and it was gray

all the words, the music,

the beauty, created out of pain

and then, today

I barely know you

yet

alone, I see you

alone, I miss you

and there is no more rain

Remembrance of Earth's Past / Three-Body / El recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra

I haven't read a lot of science fiction

I got started this summer with Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury

The online recommendations about Cixin Liu's trilogy came appearing

So I decided to give it a try, I thought probably I would read

at least the first book: The Three-Body Problem.

Which is based on the problem in physics of tracing the trajectory of three bodies interacting with one another

this problem doesn't have a closed form solution!

I am very lucky to be able to read in both Spanish and English

I read books in their original language (only for those languages of course!)

Being the original books written in Chinese

And catalogued as "hard science fiction"

A subgenre of sci-fi that focuses more on scientific details, math, physics

I thought it would be easier to understand these concepts in Spanish

I also did a combination of audiobook while following the paper back in Spanish at night.

The Spanish version is narrated spectacularly by Francesc Belda.

Yet, I couldn't resist to buy used books of the English translations

I've been having a great time comparing chapters in both languages, jumping from Spanish to English print editions to audio in Spanish

I have finished books 1 and 2, The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest

Both are highly recommended!

I don't know much about science fiction but I am in awe of the concepts, the visuals, and the stories that Cixin Liu have created

I have read that the characters are flat, and yes, this is not literary fiction (which is one of my favorite genres) yet, the narrative feels like a thriller, a space but also early 1960's Chinese thriller, full of mystery and archetypical passages

The imagery is mind-blowing and so the scientific concepts! 

But also the books are full of philosophical analysis of our species, moral concepts, sociology, including cosmic sociology (what a concept!) and more

The concept of the 'sophons' on The Three-Body Problem was mind-blowing and that was just the beginning

The concept behind The Dark Forest itself is "espeluznante" truly nightmarish

The imagery is superb too!

I could keep on writing about these books, but rather get started with

Death's End / El fin de la muerte, the last of the trilogy... and the longest.

Estuche con la trilogía Recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra y los libros en inglés The Three-body Problem and The Dark Forest

How it all got started: El Problema de los Tres Cuerpos

Capítulos en Español e Inglés

Excelente libro: The Dark Forest, El Bosque Oscuro, muy entretenido leer en inglés y español alternadamente

Following both translations, sometimes switching back in the same reading session, but mostly I read one of the other language, didn't repeat chapters in both languages.

Los 'infamous' Vallados, The Wallfacers, what a thing!

Big Blood & The Bleedin’ Hearts

“…music, the art most conductive to unspoken fellowship, …”

from the Afterword of Gaddis book Agapē Agape.

A brand new young friend, with the most impressive musical taste, shared a song from this album with me. The entire album is just so good! That bit of magical southern goth, fun, a bit unconventional, and oh well, so so good!

Another favorite album of this summer:

https://youtu.be/GfnKhJn0jV4

Summer of sci-fi & Pink Floyd

Of Cixin Liu’s El Problema de los Tres Cuerpos

en español

y de turntable

y de música nueva (gracias amigos)

y de Domingo por la noche

y Pink Floyd