alley

the alley, 2005-2009
a couple are from alleys
around the neighborhood
with different digital cameras
and one analog

keeping daydreams & lights of backstreets in a little box

Madredeus und Lisbon Story

hopefully the scene will illustrate why you have
to watch Wim Wender's Lisbon Story
Lisboa, la ciudad, y Madredeus
with Fado's queen senhorita Teresa

domestic bliss & these feverish daydream songs

today was an odd day
the office was stuffy & warm, problems with the AC
it gave me a sore throat that blended with work stress
soon felt
like a daydream or a fever

i came home and the Gatos,
the skunk farm (more on this later),
and the new homeless kitty around (more on this later too),
were all asking for food, demanding attention
and busy being cats

the yoga fixed the throat for a little
but the body aches, and nightmarish feeling, stayed
i made some veggie soup and tea, but no luck
and by now it's too late

but then, like magia, i find this picture from a couple
of weeks ago



& yes! we are capable of domestic bliss

and then when not, as i found out too,
have this [below] to cuddle
with gatos and with soul,
no matter how many fevers or bad AC daydreams,
life on you bestow

[below] if you get into it
you are going to need 20 minutes with some seconds
rather not, if you don't
now i click on --> publish post

air sky

a normal heights sky sounds like Air
on a Monday off night

gentleness

today at yoga we did a little Om exercise
we chanted 3 really loud Oms
followed by the 3 most delicate and quiet Oms we had

it was interesting how it was much easier
to almost 'scream' the Oms than to chant them
gently, kindly...
the whole class shared the same feeling

the chanting experiment reminded me of
a piece of lyrics from an old The Smitsh's song:
I Know It's over
i am not sure why, but a sentence from it
ot stuck in my head a long time ago,
'It takes guts to be gentle and kind'

maybe 'cause i used to listen that CD endlessly,
The Queen is Dead
and Morrissey's lyrics/singing
make each song an unforgettable piece
like on this one

It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind
...
It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind

a superb piece of some indie alternative rock philosophy?
sure a very Zen and enlightened sentence
full of an aloof dignity that conveys
one to feel at peace, no matter what
well, it does that for me

so, when i am mad sometimes
and i wanna scream, or 'renegade'
about life, complain to myself
on one of those sulky states
i sing to myself...

It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind

and in my head, of course i hear Morrissey voice
not mine

and tonight was not the case
i was not angry, and not mad
on the contrary
but the chanting experiment reminded
of the strength that quietness requires
&
maybe, next time you are mad
you can sing it along too
and transform the rage into forgiveness
and the sadness into hope

the song is actually about a lost love
a desperate broken-heart song
but that's not the reason why i think of it
it's only the It takes guts to be gentle and kind
part, that got stuck
but when i repeat it

the Oms roll quieter, smoother, and kinder
like a wave done with her duty
and gently retrieving to el mar


unwinding this week, for a Holiday weekend
i get ready with
a small beer, a pillow, and good sweet nights

frau Kitty and the rain

this happened on Saturday,
it was raining the whole day



so frau Kitty couldn't go out and play...


the rain, mocking frau Kitty


frau Kitty's eyes asking why it rains?
how can we stop this so i can go out and play?

reading Paul Bowles on my patio, and Kenzaburō Ōe before yoga and the in kitchen

i have read a couple of Japanese authors
some books i got as gifts from my friend Lisa
[post from May 2006, about an e-mail from her on Japanese authors]
and some i got myself

so I've read the elegant and superb Yukio Mishima,
the visual strangeness and symbolism of Kōbō Abe's
The Kangaroo Notebook...
the story of a man who sprouted radishes on his shins
to later travel on his hospital bed accompanied by a vampire nurse
and other surreal characters to even more surreal places
yes! it is a very strange book...

but also, I've been delighted and thankful for having spent many hours
entertained by the postmodernism of masterful Haruki Murakami
with his collections of short stories,
the Rat's appearances in A Wild Sheep Chase, and
the adventures of tormented teenager Kafka
and mister Nakata and his friends the cats on
Kafka on the Shore

and now i finally read another famous Japanese author
Kenzaburō Ōe,
i read 2 short stories
Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness, and
Aghwee The Sky Monster
another gift from Lisa too
the stories are both a mixture of reality and imagination
images and sentences that leave you after reading
a similar sensation to having waked up from a
visually overcharged strange dream


so Ōe, what i've been reading when i arrive
early to the Yoga studio, but also in my kitchen
while waiting for the water to boil for tea
...
these surreal visions that drip into everyday reality
seem to be a common theme in modern Japanese literature
along with references to the Western World reliquaries
like the pork noodles in broth accompanied by a Pepsi-Cola
that the fat man and his mentally challenged son Mori
share in the tale of Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness
or the reference to Jimmy Stewart and his gigantic
bunny character Harvey in Aghwee The Sky Monster...
yet... every single Japanese author voice
is radically different from the others
you could not confuse even for a sentence
the words of Murakami, with Abe, or Ōe
even if being all so modernly Japanese...

but then after getting some e-remainders
about Paul Bowles, and needing a break from
Ōe, last night i decided to use Bowles
as a modern-Japanese-intensity chaser...


reading my used copy of Paul Bowles Collected Stories on my little patio
& chubby mourning dove hanging out on electricity cable, behind

& oh it worked!... I've read a couple of Bowles
the Collected Stories a while ago, when i bought
this pretty copy (i think the covers are made of Canson paper)
only this time I payed more attention
he sounded so much familiar than Ōe!!
but of course, not only the native writing
in English, that in spite of not being my first language
it surely is my second... made it easier than reading
the awkwardly formed sentences of Ōe
being translated from Japanese
but also sure helped that the landscape
narrated was undoubtedly my country Mexico
or a latin/mexican lost paradise in Bowles mind
and the fact that the characters has names like
Señora Sanchez, señora Lucha, Federico, y Roberto
and said phrases like "A veces..."

Paul Bowles sounds timeless, and wise...
and legendary!, like García Márquez or José Saramago
those authors that read like they are writing
"from above..."
and yet Bowles is refreshingly more humane
not sure how to explain...



magical Bowles and his
"The dinning room smelled of kerosene and oranges."
and his
"The night was thick with eternity."

Eternity indeed mister Bowles! i say...
and a sound thank you to my dear friends
for their soulful recommendations of authors
and the gifts of books
they are like smiles for the soul

oooooh Ziggy played guitar

David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust is one of my favorite songs
strangely is not the original song by Bowie that i favor
but the cover by Bauhaus

i don't tend to like covers, but Ziggy is one of those rare songs
when the cover is better than the original
or so i think, so when i came across this little '45
i bought it... i do have a turntable, you know?



here to Ground Control's and your consideration



ahh the glam rock era

no ceiling

there was a time while i was living in Mexico City
that i used to like Pearl Jam
then my "densos" (hard-core) rock friends pointed
some of their 'faults' to me
and for one reason or another, i stopped following them
but i always like Eddie Vedder's lamb-like voice
meeeeh meeeh he goes, and i like it
and then one day i watched Into the Wild
a great film directed by Sean Penn, and etc. etc. etc
since then i recovered some certain admiration for Vedder
who wrote the score music and soundtrack of the film
i don't think the songs are musically the best
but the lyrics, the darn lyrics are really good
so Vedder is a cute lamb and a poet too!
also he played most of the instruments during the recording
i didn't know he could play the banjo and i really
like the banjo sound on this track
here to match my last-week California winter shot

No Ceiling, a short yet lovely banjo song



Comes the morning
When I can feel
That there's nothing left to be concealed
Moving on a scene surreal
No, my heart will never, will never be far from here

Sure as I am breathing
Sure as I'm sad
I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh
I leave here believing more than I had
And there's a reason I'll be, a reason I'll be back

As I walk the hemisphere
I got my wish to up and disappear
I've been wounded, I've been healed
Now for landing I've been, for landing I've been cleared

Sure as I am breathing
Sure as I'm sad
I'll keep this wisdom in my flesh
I leave here believing more than I had
This love has got no ceiling.