Saturday, March 29, 2008

barely California

just yesterday
was this sunny...
the Friday-driving back home
finally-was-the-weekend drive



atmosphere smelled like palm trees
burned to a golden sunset, pavement
and freedom, yes it was this golden

today is gray-er, gloomier
there is even a menace of rain...
barely California

Thursday, March 27, 2008

look who's back again! (or Part II)

these photos are from this March
a lovely and now becoming traditional
visitor, arrived again to the little yard
outside my home

this coming-along tradition of
grasshopper friends
[click on it for the whole grasshopper-saga]



above ▲ this as 1st seen this early March, through my window
and below ▼ ... so i came outside to say hello and...


...
for the photo, he posed

i must smile everytime they make it back

good to see you again!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

brothers Quay

amazing stop-motion animation
by the Quay brothers
identical twins that create these
rather interesting animation pieces

they are poetic, they are dark
they are non-sense but make all the sense
at the same time
dunkel, beautiful, like a deep strange dream

here the dark, sehr sehr dunkel
"Stille Nacht I: Dramolet"



[and to think it's just an old doll,
some magnets and powdered metal...]

and another little sample



if you come across their dark art
do not miss them!

and thanks to mister atom
for introducing me to the Quay brothers
i have a DVD with
The Brothers Quay Collection:
Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993 (1984)
creatures to crawl into my
mexican-californian mind
and then not so sunny will be this Sunday

Ostern/Easter/Pascua

Frohe Ostern!
Happy Easter!
un buen Domingo de Pascua



if you notice i didn't say
Feliz Pascua or Feliz Semana Santa
in Spanish is not used to say "Happy"
about these days, since it is more
of a quiet Holiday
the resurrection of Jesus Christ is today

but now this more pagan yet fun
way to celebrate Easter with bunnies and eggs
a lovely Rabbit made by my
co-worker's 6 year-old daughter
[check out the little tail, heh heh...]

and have a good Sunday
no matter what or how you celebrate

Thursday, March 20, 2008

my little: Frühling/Spring/Primavera, make your choice

Man spürt das Herannahen des Frühlings.
You can sense the coming of Spring.
El inicio de la Primavera.

[and this is how it looks... my little private Spring]


[portraits of the little flowers i planted last year blooming
right in time for Spring, and my tired leg still with shoe after
a long day at work and a light dinner, now gone... ]

and as for the in-3-different-languages vocables
for this season, i stick to the one in Español

i think is the most-adequate sounding one for
what this season represents

surely, and at least to my mexican ears
Primavera, sound much accurate
than Frühling or Spring

yet a matter of taste, of course
i hope if you read here
you submit your vote...

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Kiyo's 1st birthday

Kiyo hat heute Geburtstag
today's is Kiyo's birthday
Hoy es el cumpleaños de Kiyo



I found this old post from March 20 2007
it was March 19 when I got my
fishy-friend Kiyo!
so today is his 'official' 1st birthday!

if you see this old photo of him
you can see he was smaller
and of a lighter peach color
and even a little 'transparent'
he has grown at least 1/2 inch
and his color has turned deep dark
also his fins are longer

here as he looks lately



in just 1 year we have been through a lot together
we survived his Popeye and fin rot infection

his has a newer and improved home these days
he started with a 1 gallon tank with a natural plant
and used to eat just pellets
but now he lives in a 2 gallon tank
with a heather, an artificial plant to keep away infections
and his diet is way richer!
he still eats pellets but also flakes
brine shrimp and blood worms
he really like the blood worms

and i am happy to have this lovely red friend
for a whole year now!
Betta fishes life span varies from 2 up to 5 years!
being a regular span life 3 years

so i hope my friend Kiyo stays with me for a while still
he's been a neat little companion...
and!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, herr Kiyo!
Happy Birthday, mister Kiyo!
¡Feliz Cumpleaños, señor Kiyo!

Monday, March 17, 2008

st. patrick's day and nat king cole

March 17 was
St. Patrick's Day
half of the people at my office
wore something green
and we eat shamrock cookies
this year i missed the soda bread
and a cold Guinness beer but all the bars
around my house, that happen to be Irish
were full!



and it is also
Nat "King" Cole birthday

on Sunday
i saw The Blue Gardenia
a thriller from 1953 with Anne Baxter
and... one of the first appearances
in the big screen of Nat King Cole
singing the theme song



the film is directed by Fritz Lang
and it is a pretty decent Film noir

Sunday, March 16, 2008

rain, wine, and an afternoon with open-air organ

it rained all night
traces of rain on the
now-sunny morning



at it is 49°F (9°C) here!
too cold for a March in San Diego
still, meister Sun shows its face this morning

and to see meister Jackson Borges
playing the Organ at Spreckles Theater this afternoon

Jackson is my friend from die Deutschstunde!
he told us last class about this event
where he's the main organist
and the 3 Bach pieces on an open-air venue
at 2pm sound rather delightful!

last night found a red wine, that promises no headaches
Red Well 2006, a Californian table red wine
from Heartswork Winery
since reads sulfites-free
i don't believe any red wine can be
sulfite free a 100% but at least less sulfatoide i guess it is
i had a glass last night, and clear headed today
the flavor is cheerful and very light bodied
so it's easy to drink a little too much of it



oh strange days around here
some things are really slow
but time seems to be flowing so fast
i feel like staring at the world
from the sidewalk sometimes
without jumping into the rushing traffic hour
myself
things on-hold, yet feelings and movement
are not

Friday, March 14, 2008

elvis

[singing]
We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much baby

[singing]



Suspicious Minds is
the best Elvis song ever!

'cause even if you are a 'darketo'
a punk-electronic-rocketo,
a country man, a jazzy fellow
or a classic old chap...

we have to admit that he was the King!
and i am not an Elvis fan
but this song, ah! and...
his ala king-of-rock life, death
and legacy
just cannot be denied

as i can't deny when i listen to it
i silly-smile
with gray sweater and messy bathroom



i am mostly a silly woman
i smile a lot and i am simple-natured
nothing sophisticated to see here...
i am almost 40 years old
and i am still lost on my own little world
the same one that i had in my head when i was 12 years

i still get excited with Sherlock Holmes stories
even if Saramago stole my innocence once

and yes, i have traveled, i have loved,
i have lost, and i have won
and those precious trophies are mostly smiles and hugs
(the only important things to really care about, as i think...)
i always arrive late and i am rather informal
but apart from being always late
i do not usually tell lies

yet, the core in my spirit is the same
and for that simpleness of mind
i guess i am thankful
as a Steppenwolf song (The Pusher) said:

"You know I smoked a lot of grass and I've popped a lot of pills
But I've never done nothing that my spirit couldn't kill"

and as everybody
i have my bad and my good days
i am temperamental and simple-minded at the same time
i trust to death but then i grow suspicious of even
a fly too close to my head

but then i have my fixes
those precious cures that we all look for
sometimes is a cold beer in the middle of the night
while playing an old record

sometimes is the phone call to a loved one

and all these marvels i find and i
find them around the corner too!
on the smile of an unknown child
or the salute of a warm face crossing the side walk
with me at the same time
or on more expected places as in
art, literature, all that cult stuff
but then pop-art, i do can cry to pop-ness as well as to
profoundness, and sometimes these old songs...

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

zeppelin sounds

and as suggested per
moloko vellocet
ah! a led zeppelin therapy
and with tomorrow another cup of hot café
the cure is reaching soon the head



and things seem to be setting into place

thank God for comments, friends, telephones,
working-breaks, communications, food,
smells, distant and close voices, música
and yes! for mental break-downs...
también!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

pointless (zapatos viejos y pantuflas)

this night
all feels so pointless

so gray
and so boring...

tired like my old shoes
sleepy like my over-used pantuflas



now that the physical pain is gone
seems that a strange indifference
has taken over me and lately
sophomoric dreams are one-sided
and lonely

if you were to knock at my door
one splendid night!
oh lovely surprise
it would be
to mix my little home
and your smiles

but, no surprises
no furtive messages
another long night alone
again, boring...

yet i still wait
for a coming morning
even if nothing
even if empty
even if lonely

because
in the mornings
at least there's the aroma of coffee

i have survived 38 years
with and without little disappointments
not even sun rays are always there
but one can make her own coffee
that scares away this
my self aromas of loneliness

Sunday, March 09, 2008

time loss, weight gain

today the day loses 1 hour
daylight saving time


meine Eieruhr (oder Sanduhr) - meine Küche
my egg-timer (sand clock) - my kitchen
reloj de arena - mi cocina

and an hour less or an hour more
we cannot stop the pass of time
here my little 3 minute sand-clock
i use it for brewing teas and running eggs
and every time it dances up-side down
i know i have 3 minutes less
or have gained 3 more...

but not all is lost, some is gained!

and since i have been eating very well
i have gained some pounds!!

this morning's "light" breakfast
mein "kleines" Frühstück
mmm, latkes...
those potato pancakes,
eggs and wheat pancake
plus sauces, not so light, i think...
oh the coffee was great though
Peet's Garuda Blend



last night's 3rd dinner
a delicious Double Chocolate Stout
an indulgent Bier beer cerveza



at the end all balances itself out
what??!! noooo...

Saturday, March 08, 2008

today, die Bücherei

Besuch der Bücherei
Visit to the library
visita a la Biblioteca



hier\here\aquí

i read Spring Snow in 2005
my friend Lisa gave it to me
it is part of Yukio Mishima's tetralogy
The Sea of Fertility
today, after 3 year, i picked up
at the library
the volume 2...
Runaway Horses



Mishima writes some beautiful passages
and profound characters that remind you
of what serious literature is for


as seen on the 2nd Floor of the Mesa College Library
San Diego, California - 3/08/2008

Friday, March 07, 2008

finally!

endlich
at last
finalmente

i have finished all the antibiotics

in 30 days
i took 70 antibiotics pills
separated in 2 sets of
1 week and then
10 days



and as mister Daniel Defoe's text
points
"this thing has very much affected me"
but today i start to feel more like myself
[wonder if that's a good thing, maybe i was better
awfully quiet as i was... hmm, a thought for tonite]

and not sure why
but when i am sick or in an introspective mood
i always go back to read quirky old ghost stories
and short tales of a remote past
like this one
The Apparition of Mrs. Veal
short classic ghost story
from a long time ago
some old English words drove me
to the dictionary for a double check



but a treat for those my dizzy days!
good to be coming back to 'normal'
and tonight
i might even play more with pictures
and sounds
have a good weekend
wherever you are

Monday, March 03, 2008

no fotos, los antiobióticos y la insoportable levedad del ser

reading around blogs
it seems to me that
that in the 1st day of work of the week
maybe because of the Monday's blues
we all humans seem to think more about

that universal nothingness
"that sneaking feeling of existing"

for me i think the antibiotics had made it!
they put me on lazy and very dizzy spell
not really depressed but more tired
and unmotivated, and slightly dizzy
about to miss the equilibrium at each step
just a general fragility of spirit, body and character
and
i cannot play with photos
it makes me really sad!
'cause complex visual patterns make more dizzy
and already have to deal with a screen at work 8 hrs a day

and one of the things that scared that feeling away
has always been for me, to get lost on my photos
or the many of wonderful photographers around the
world wide web
but... ah these days

i miss watching photos on 23 and playing with mine
but little time and big headaches every time i try to see many images
ah sigh...

already 2 weeks and no photos...
sad
but soon! this wednesday i am finally off
this awful medication

and so much this feeling peruses around Mondays
that Milan Kundera wrote a book about it...
i read it many many years ago
and i barely remember the plot
maybe is time to re-read
have always loved the implications of the title

Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

La insoportable levedad del ser

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Lars Von Trier's Riget ("The Kingdom")

i rented in DVD the danish TV series
by Lars Von Trier, Riget or 'The Kingdom'

strange european TV series indeed
the series is 4 episodes, 2 on each DVD
last weekend i watched episodes 1 and 2
and going for the 3rd one right now...
there's a certain pleasure to watch ghost-stories
during the hours day
rather than dulling the day with its sun
the mystery, the mystery itself filters
into the little clouds up in the blue sunny sky
a good thriller is one that makes you chill your skin
at the plain sunlight

here the intro to the series
that have a spooky sepia-ish cinematography
and some angeled shots
wonderfully dark visuals of mister director
Lars Von Trier
some scenes taste very David Lynch too



here the text in English of the introduction
that talks of the origins and the land where nowadays
stands an advanced and modern danish Hospital
were strange things happens and the building itself
starts to cry down its own structure...

The Kingdom Hospital rests on ancient marshland
where the bleaching ponds once lay.
Here the bleachers moistened their great spans of cloth.
The steam evaporating from the wet cloth
shrouded the place in permanent fog.
Centuries later the hospital was built here.
The bleachers gave way to doctors and researchers,
the best brains in the nation and the most perfect technology.
To crown their work they called the hospital The Kingdom.
Now life was to be charted, and ignorance and superstition
never to shake the bastions of science again.
Perhaps their arrogance became too pronounced,
and their persistent denial of the spiritual.
For it is as if the cold and damp have returned.
Tiny signs of fatigue are appearing in the solid, modern edifice.
No living person knows it yet, but the gateway to the Kingdom
is opening once again.


and the trailers

strange days and smells

i haven't written in a while
last week's days were filled with strange episodes

.monday an ear infection
.tuesday a migraine kept me at home
.the rest of the working week flew OK
trying to rescue the 1st 2 lost days
.ein Wortschatz quiz on Thursday
.with a nice twist on Friday,
dinner a friend from México City
old ex-coworker from the Hard Rock Café

so, i haven't played with fotos
i have barely replied e-mails
surely i haven't written in a while

this morning came across
the stories sections on 23hq.com
i wrote these chunks of silly words there
before i created this blog

and remembered this one
the smell

so here today i remember
instead of creating
since still hurts my head

oh just hoping for more energy
for this Sunday
here i relate today again to a home-smell

the smell
my house smells like an older woman’s house
today’s sweet and strong
but a little dense
opened the door and it came in
in the core like a rush
the mixture of scents, an unrepeatable aroma
right now
there’s fig candle a cheap one
the expensive one is a stone mixture overprized store
of jasmine, & fig and all the-other-don’t-know
it changes every day
every minute you can say
if you got a nose or at all around come
for sure you can tell
and then the trash can left some little pieces of onion
very little not too strong
to make organic this matter at the most
it stands, food odors from there
and mixed with the rain outside and still a hint
(would said if preparing a perfume formula: add a 3%
of aroma reminiscent of fresh paint, just a 3 percent! not less no more)
and in 2 hrs i know won’t be quite the same
oh if i know
if my nose can calculate!!!

this
like the very first time you do something
unexpected
the first time while learning to drive you almost crashed
you didn’t, but learnt the fear
it left tracks
or the first encounter with someone
a friend of a friend
the aunt of the cousin of the neighbor
whatever
but then you become good friends, maybe even family
or co-workers or soul-companions
hopefully not insurance partners
and even less common-crime holders
but anyhow you’ll
remember that first encounter
blurry, escapes, like the memory of the almost-first-car-accident
because you didn’t expect it
and because it wasn’t impressive
you weren’t meeting somebody outrageous or too important
just a person
or you were just almost for the first time
a car crashing
what is the importance? if

as with aromas or acquaintances
most things around life
are a terrific accident

and now today is that smell
knowing it is happening but it won’t repeat itself
the old lady’s smell
and wish i could capture it ‘cause it suits my house so well
and surprisingly i so much like it
is not particularly good or too bad
it is just the smell of my home
and guess even if ever changing
and sadly probably won’t be able
to replicate accurately, the fortunate accident
immediately warm is & i can recognize it
is the smell of my house
and i like it!