the bare necessities, the simple bear necessities

alas, internet is fixed!  

so much to catch up on, but most importantly - i bought a bicyle!  its name is montoconcho, after odile's much-too-humorous explanation of what taxis are like in the dominican republic. simply put, they sound like a version of fred flinstone's car - no doors, loads of passengers, & run on human feet.  oh, & purple dinosaurs causing traffic jams every few or so blocks... or something like that.

what do we think cavemen worried about? probably the opposite of everything we do now! 

you see...

cavemen worried about being devoured by large, hungry animals - now, we are the large & hungry ones worrying about devouring them.

cavemen worried about being hairy enough to keep warm - now, we go to desperate measures to be hairless, even if it means pouring hot wax on our skin & pulling the hair from its roots.

cavemen ate with their hands - now, we make all kinds of complicated eating utensils (which is the appropriate hand for handling knives, anyway?) & laugh at the chinese for still using the chopsticks! 

& judging from fred flintstone's car, cavemen used their legs to thrust themselves across land - now, we are constantly being told to "keep our arms & legs inside the vehicle at all times."  (...ever been to disney?)

clearly, we've got to get our priorities straight!  well, there's one thing that hasn't changed. 

love, sweet love. the wonderfulness of life.

you must remember this

a kiss is just a kiss

a sigh is just a sigh

the fundamental things apply

as time goes by

although, our version should be:

you must remember this

a school is just a school

an exam is just an exam

whether you study for  m o n t h s  or cram

as time goes by

casablanca - as time goes by

i see friends shaking hands, saying 'how do you do?'

they're really saying 'i love you'

israel kamakawiwo'ole - somewhere over the rainbow/what a wonderful world

live laugh love

besos.

Si pasas a la siguiente fase...

...Te quitas el pantalón?

I think it aired on a Spanish channel as part of a talent competition. Needless to say, I think the feminine audience was more than pleased.

Full contact, Capoeira, Acrobacias


But here's something much cooler.

Breakdance


And a little Sir Elt to soften the hearing.

Tiny Dancer - Elton John 1971


Besos.

A Rush of Blood to the Head

A lack of internet has prevented recent blog entries but has motivated exploration in areas far, far away from cyberspace.

Among these, isolation tanks, i.e. sensory deprivation chambers. Click here for a description and here for information on the appropriate Simpsons episode, in which even Homer experiences a "spiritual" journey.

Instead of explaining, I'll recount what I consider were the top 5 highlights...

• My body felt ethereal, & as if impossible to endure weights, burdens, or concerns.
• My mind felt separate, almost disconnected, from my body.
• I found myself Ohm-ing midway through.
• It was just me inside the tank - there were no sounds, no lights, no distractions.
• Ironically, the time went fast & felt fleeting.

Needless to say, it was a spiritual experience. I came out with a strong desire to learn meditation and with a feeling of inner peace. ...Seriously!

Coldplay - Politik

Besos.

come away with me

será que entre las hojas que nunca se cayeron estará perdida la verdad

(andrés calamaro)

norah jones - sunrise

besos.

a rumbo perdido

in florida for the week, enjoying the sun's warm rays, my mom's home cooking, & the slow-paced dynamics inherent to orlando.  just takin' 'er easy...

went to the salvador dalí museum in st.petersburg earlier in the week - it was awesome.  the collection is actually one of the most extensive in the world.  plus, the museum usually has other works on loan and also houses temporary exhibits - currently on dalí & film (which -ironically - opened at the london tate modern).  here's what i learned:

1. dalí & walt disney collaborated on a surreal, animated film called destino, which was abandoned midway through & lay dormant for 57 years until disney's nephew ordered it to be completed. i loved it. like fantasia, the images morph into one another to create crosses between reality and fantasy.  also, right around that time, dalí was designing a dream sequence for alfred hithcock's film spellbound - a freudian scene in which an amnesic (gregory peck) narrates a recurring dream to his psychoanalyst (ingrid bergman) in an attempt to decode his subconsciousness. 

2. in the 70's, dalí released a hallucinogenic tv documentary called impressions of upper mongolia.  he was inspired in great part by patterns obtained staining the brass band of a pen. here's the catch - he would regularly urinate on it to "improve the patination" ... !

on to other things.

here's otros aires, a neo-tango group founded in barcelona in 2003 by miguel di genova.  they sound good!  click here to listen to sin rumbo on their own website - or check out another of their songs, below.  enjoy!

milonga sentimental - otros aires

and a bit more of a classic, by one of the masters.

libertango - ástor piazzolla - performed by yo-yo ma 

besos.

Starving Hysterical Naked

This weekend has changed my life. Why? Well, I'll tell you. But, first... you might want to sit down.

Imagine that the simplest, most fundamental assumptions on which you rested your life, the very facts that drove your every move, your every decision - were suddenly violently ripped from beneath your feet, throwing you into a state of chaos, disorientation, imbalance! Well, what I learned this weekend did just that. Except - worse, because what I experienced in reaction to this radical, far-reaching fact were 2 somewhat opposing feelings, leaving my soul in a state of perhaps eternal conflict. (I should note - this was all courtesy of the Sleeping and Dreaming exhibition at the Wellcome Trust).

Apparently, the "fact" that we need 8 hours of sleep - is a MYTH! It was popularized during the time of King Henry VIII when Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia - and in his "perfect world," the inhabitants slept 8 hours!

My immediate reaction was one of relief. To someone with insomniac tendencies, knowing that we are each "unique" and that there is no real number of hours that the human body requires - or rather, that there is variation among us - is alleviating.

But, on the other hand, to someone who has planned her life around 8 hours of sleep - that is, constantly set, reset and modified her alarm during sleepless nights in order to assure the valued 8 hours of sleep - to someone who has missed meetings, classes, exams, & outings in pursuit of the heavenly 8 hours of sleep - this piece of news is quite troubling!

What was soothing - apparently many great inventors, discoverers, and thinkers have stumbled upon their creations in their dreams, literally. Among them, Paul McCartney. He woke up from a dream listening to the tune of Yesterday playing in his head & wondered how nobody had ever written down the melody to such a beautiful song. Enjoy!

Paul McCartney - Yesterday

Besos.

I'd like to invite you over for a duck dinner...

You bring the ducks! (J. Wellington Wimpy)

Popeye the Sailor Song
(Jeje... note J. Wellington Wimpy's hamburger cooking skills!)


Max Fleischer, one of my childhood heroes.
If the name doesn't sound too familiar, think animation.
Creator of Betty Boop.
Responsible for Popeye the Sailor.
Brought Superman to the screen.
Inventor of Rotoscoping. (In fact, check out this 1936 article published in Popular Science.)

Considering the cartoons debuted in the 1930's, the animation effects are pretty sick!

Popeye the Sailor - Rotograph


On an entirely different note - check out this month's issue of National Geographic, if you can. There's an article on Bhutan that utterly made my jaw drop. The headline reads:

Bhutan's Enlightened Experiment

Guided by a novel idea, the tiny Buddhist kingdom tries to join the modern world without losing its soul.

I just didn't realize places like this still existed.
Besos.