April 09, 2008
"Serenidad, Yulma, tu peor enemigo puede ser el miedo."
Help, my home is being invaded my Mexican memorabilia
or
how I learned about Lucha Libre and Kaliman, el hombre increíble.
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November 13, 2007
A visit to the SF MoMA - Aesthetical Ecstasy
Also, I finished reading Yasmina Reza's Plays. I love "Art":
The comedy, which raises questions about art and friendship, concerns three long-time friends, Serge, Marc, and Yvan. Serge, indulging his penchant for modern art, buys a large, expensive, completely white painting. Marc is horrified, and their relationship suffers considerable strain as a result of their differing opinions about what constitutes "art." Yvan, caught in the middle of the conflict, tries to please and mollify both of them. -- summary by the wikipedia.
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October 04, 2007
Superman lies among men disguised as the journalist Clark Kent; as such he appears fearful, timid, not over intelligent, awkward, near sighted (...) From a mythopoetic point of view the device is even subtler: in fact, Clark Kent personifies fairly typically the average reader who is harassed by complexes and despised by his fellow men; through an obvious process of self identification, any accountant in any american city secretly feeds the hope that one day, from the slough of his actual personality there can spring forth a superman who is capable of redeeming years of mediocre existence.
--Umberto Eco, Il mito de Superman e la dissolozione del tempo (1962)
*****
This made me want to watch Unbreakable again.
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July 13, 2007
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May 05, 2006
I'm Not Your Sweet Baboo!
Went to Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, California. As most cartoon museums do, they hang cartoon strips on the walls, exhibit art inspired by Peanuts and keep the office of the cartoonist like it was a shrine and nothing else much.
A lady there made sure she told us everything she knew about Schulz and his family and each time we'd say "Thanks" and made that classic body move of someone who wants to go on with the visit, she'd come up with some new anedocte until some other suckers, ahem, tourists drawed her attention. One of Schulz's daughters was on Ice Capades so I guess that's where the idea for "Snoopy on Ice" came from :-).
Highlight of the museum: Snoopy's doghouse wrapped by Christo.
+++++
And this post wouldn't be complete without this:
Which Peanuts character are you?
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November 22, 2005
Kunst Bar
Clever online animation here: the Art Bar. In a few minutes a trip through History of Modern Art, alcoholic drinks involved.
(A Miró Menu at the Kunst Bar)
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August 02, 2005
Marco
As any other portuguese from my generation might agree, "Marco - Dos Alpes aos Apeninos" was one of the cartoons (japanese anime, in fact) on TV during our childhood which left the most enduring impression. I used to cry my heart out watching it - the theme song was particularly depressing.
"3000 Leagues in Search of Mother is, as can be gleaned from the title, the chronicle of one boy who sets off all alone across an ocean and makes a grueling, bitter journey in search for his mother. His desolate trek spans the Atlantic, starting off in Genova, Italy and concluding in Cordoba, Argentina. The boy's name is Marco Rossi. In Genova, Marco's father oversees a free clinic which treats the vast number of people unable to afford the cost of medical treatment at a hospital. Due to the inexhorable debt into which this line of work has entrenched his family, and the national work shortage which plagued Italy at the end of the nineteenth century -- a glaring side-effect of the drive towards industrialization --, Marco's mother is forced to leave Italy, and go to Argentina in search of work. There she is to find work as a nurse to the poor, like her husband, to return only when the family's debt has been repaid." (more on the book and the anime here)
Recently, while reminiscing about our childhood with friends, I got two interesting pieces of information:
- the japanese series is based on the book "Cuore" by Edmondo de Amicis - "the italian Huckleberry Finn" (which was what triggered an intensive session of googling for this post);
- Ricardo C. tells me he has a group of friends who defend the theory that Marco's mother went to Argentina to become a prostitute; so much for childhood memories :-)))
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July 22, 2005
It's only a matter of attitude
Cartoons can be so philosophical...
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May 13, 2005
The Kama Sutra of reading
Stolen from Booklust
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April 27, 2005
Magritte's true inspiration
Another "find" from the SA trip: Miguel Repiso(Rep), "the most original cartoonist that Argentina has produced in recent years" as Quino (my favourite cartoonist) himself puts it.
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September 24, 2003
Houbi :-)
The Marsupilami character in Spirou cartoons was created by Franquin. He's a fabulous animal, with super-strength and a very long multi-purposed tail.
My favourite book is "The Nest of the Marsupilamis" where we find out the subtle differences between the genders of the species (being mainly that the male says "Houba!" and the female more elegantly answers "Houbi!").
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