Happier day!

Today, La Liga, which is considered to be the best soccer league in the world, started. Curiously, it was the second game day. Last week, the players were on strike. It worked, they are back, and the world is happy!
On top of that, Sevilla FC defeated Malaga, a team that many saw as a possible alternative to the two giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, with two goals of Alvaro Negredo. The former plays tomorrow against Villareal, the latter beat Zaragoza 6-0 playing away, showing off its power. As I said a happier day!

Sad, sad day!

Today, Sevilla FC was eliminated from the Europa League by Hannover 96. I cannot comment on the game because I was at work, and therefore could not watch it. I have read the articles about the game in both newspapers and the blogsphere. Everyone coincides that Sevilla deserved more but that is not enough in soccer. I’m almost glad that I did not watch the game, I know I would be even more devastated right now. The only thing that all Sevilla supporters can do right now is keeping their spirits up and think about the next game in La Liga. If we want to think positively,  after 7 consecutive years playing 3 competitions a year, Sevilla will play only two. It will be easier on our players’ legs. However, there is no excuse to either win the cup or at least qualify for the Champions League. In any case, a very sad day…

Police brutality! In the name of religion?

The following video shows a disgusting abuse of authority by Spanish police. They brutally attacked a 17 year-old girl protesting against JMJ, known in English as the World Youth Day, and a journalist without apparent reason.The video is very graphic and, unfortunately pollutes the name of police that, as long as it lets people like these enroll in their forces, will never free themselves of the fascist and francoist connotations that still accompany all security forces in Spain. The State department has taken actions against the agent who slap the girl and his superiors in control of the squad.

Cell 211, a prison movie.

This film was together with Alejandro Amenabar's Agora the star in the 2009 edition of the Goyas (Spanish Oscars), where it collected eight, including best picture and best actor (Luis Tosar).
I hadn't had the chance to watch it yet, despite the good recommendations from friends and critics. Celda 211 is, for me, the confirmation, if we still needed one, that the Spanish film industry is ready to produce any kind of genre without making a fool of itself anymore. Many genres have proved to have a space in the, until the late 80s, very limited selection of genres that could deliver a solid Spanish film. The last twenty-five years have shown the world that Spain can make excellent films in genres so disarranged to the Spanish audiences as science fiction, adventures, horror, or now, prison film thriller. The only exportable films before was reduced to a small number of comedies and artsy dramas, with a few rare exception here and there. (I'm not counting B movies, since during the 70s and 80s Spain exported a ton of these movies).

Celda 211 is a fairly sound film. It has its defects, but they don't affect the overall result. The script is not very solid for once. There are a few weaknesses in it, as for example how does the protagonist, a regular young person, get so easily accepted by the horrific leader of the prison riots, Malamadre? What is his six months plus pregnant girlfriend doing in an out of control multitude protesting against riot police? Why does Utrilla (Antonio Resines), the most hatred guard in prison accept to go inside to negotiate knowing that the prisoners have witnessed what happened outside the prison? (He beats up the girlfriend in front of the cameras)
I could mention a few more, but the point is that, as bad as they sound, they do not affect the main goal of the film, which can both entertain and criticize the penitentiary system in Spain without making one or the other its focus point.
In any case, Celda 211 is an engaging film that deserves to sit down in from of the television to see, as my wife ironically says, “one of those uplifting endings of Spanish cinema.”

True Blood s04e09. "Run". Definitely, we are not going to see a threesome.

With Eric jumping over Bill to kill him, a few hours after the latter pardoned the Viking vampire's life, I seriously doubt that Sooki is going to see her dreams come true. Since we are talking about dreams, I have to let out again something that is bothering me this season: the diversity on the director's visions on characters and other recurrent themes in the series. This time the characters kept their personalities, however the dream scene this time was too much of a dream. Normally, these scenes were not shot with the typical blurry diffusing corners as in tonight's episode. I know I am being meticulous, but I can't avoid it. They have to be consistent! The other thing about the dream that I couldn’t avoid thinking is the difficulty of shooting that scene for the three of them. Remember that Bill and Sooki are married in real life, so imagine the awkwardness of the situation. The constant change of directors put me off with the importance of Mavis, the spirit that possesses Lafayette. Last episode, as I wrote last week, made me think she was going to be a pivotal character in the witch vs. vampires plot, but now Mavis’ subplot seems to be closed. I guess with only three more episodes to go, things must start tying all loose ends, and in this season there are many. In any case, a good episode with a huge cliffhanger for the fans.

Finally, I couldn't leave without making a reference to Jason, he is my favorite character as you have probably already noticed, and he finally succumbed to Jessica's irresistible charm on the back of his pick-up truck in this episode! Oh, man, I don't blame him, but what a mess is waiting for poor Jason here!

Religion Extremism in the Media

The JMJ 2011 (Jornadas Mundiales de la Juventud) started yesterday in Madrid, and will last until Sunday. This is a religious Christian celebration where young people from all over the world have the chance to experience the universality of the Church and meet the Pope. It is know in English as World Youth Day, WYD.

Everything up to here is fine, even nice if you have religious inclinations. This event is held in a different country every three years. The problem with the celebration in Spain is that public funds finance the Pope visit in a country that is on the verge of bankruptcy, not to mention that the Spain government offers tax breaks to those companies that help the maintenance of the Catholic Church in Spain!

In any case, I am digressing here. It turned out that today there was also in Madrid a secular demonstration to protest against the Pope visit, and especially the money allocated by the government to support the JMJ. Over 5000 people attended the demonstration that was completely peaceful until the finish point in Puerta del Sol, where a number of pilgrims where waiting for them. This situation provoked confrontations among the two groups, and outbursts of violence that ended up with eight people detained and eleven injured. This piece of news had more buzz than the case of what we could call an extreme Christian terrorist detained yesterday. Well, police authorities arrested a 24 years old student from Mexico who planned to attack the demonstration with chemical gases similar to those who killed dozens of people in the Tokio metro system years ago. This man tried to recruit people on ultra Christian and proto fascists internet forums in which he encouraged people to use sarin gas to kill from 200 to 400 people.

My question is what if he would have been a Moslem from any Arab country? How much more repercussion would have had this arrest?

True Blood s04e08. "Spellbound". I got stuck!

I got deep into this episode, in every one of its stories. Then I realized I was trapped, I barely could move my legs, and my arms were struggling to disentangle. My mouth was pasty, I could hardly say something to my wife sitting right by me, also trying to free herself from the tons of cheese that Daniel Minahan (last night TB’s director) had poured on us. Then I checked Minahan’s previous work and, except for Grey’s Anatomy, (which in my opinion sucks as much as any other doctor’s drama) he has a lot of experience on good shows as Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Life on Mars, Deadwood, or Six Feet Under. Who is to blame here for the cheesiness! (By the way, the writer is no other that Alan Ball, the series creator) The episode had two draining story lines, the one with Alcide joining the new werewolf pack with his girlfriend Debbie (who says that she finds herself at home because she met a couple of very nice bitches!), and especially the insufferable  Eric and Sooki gag-inducing one, where they show everybody how lamely in love they are. I really hate this fairy stuff in the series. In short, we could describe these two as cliché-bounding in the backwoods biker bar the former, and teenager flick-exploitation the latter. (I have never seen the (in)famous Twilight saga, but I imagine that there is a lot of that in them. Could anyone back this up?)

The episode has two lifesavers performances at least, Jason’s and the shocking Lafayette’s dream telling the background story of a character that promises to have much more to say in this season, a ghost/spirit that ends up possessing him.

I cannot forget to mention Hoyt’s (Jim Parrack) performance in his dream and real break-ups with Jessica, both of them show this actor’s talent.

These three parts saved the episode that was a serious candidate to be the absolute worst of the four seasons.

The season’s main story keeps developing; witches vs. vampires. They have their first clash that ends up with Sooki in a delicate situation. I don’t feel sorry for her after last night performance!

The next episode’s title is “Run”. I hope we do not have to do that after another unsupportable fairy-related story.

 We need the fairy absurdity to stop! Please!

Getting back to playing guitar

I used to play guitar often. It has been more than three years since the last time I played regularly (if you can call playing every now and then regularly). I have been looking forward to play again (did it yesterday for my daughter), but musical instruments are the worse of friends. They really let you know that you have not been paying enough attention to them. They let you know right away, and they don't stop reminding you out loud. You can hear it in every note!)

¡Bemsha SWING!: Indignados

¡Bemsha SWING!: Indignados:Here is a post from a fellow blogger about the indignados in Spain. The post contains a collection of slogans that the blogger in question translated into English. Totally worthy!
Also, thanks to clarissasblog.com  where I found the link!

Sleepless in St. Louis

I'm about to start a day of work after 3 hours of sleep. Last night my daughter decided it was time to party and, as people dancing to the Beastie Boys' hit (You gotta) Fight for you Right (to Party)!, she got into the the mosh pit and started demanding her right to stay awake.
I was wondering in the middle of the night why she hasn't learned yet that the song per se is not an apology to party, but a parody of party songs! Didn't she get the irony? Oh well, what can I do, she is only two and a half!

True Blood s04e07 "Cold Grey Light of Dawn". A reflexion on memory and women's power

Tonight, I would like to make a couple of reflections about memory and the power of women in the show.
Let's start by the shorter one, the recovery of a lost memory. Eric Northman, lying in his new love nest by Sooki, tells her that he does not want to remember his past. This baby face vampire was, just a few days before, a ravaging, murderous, one thousand years old bastard. He knows he is guilty of his crimes, therefore he does not want a memory of the past. He does not want to live with a guilty conscience. He does not want to remember. However, we have two characters emotionally attached to Eric who want him to remember, Pam and Sooki. The reasons why they want Eric to remember are opposite. On the one hand, Pam is that little demon that materializes in your shoulder. She represents Eric’s evil conscience, she is fully aware of their misdeeds, since she was an active part in them. Pam, free of guilty feelings, claims the return of Eric’s memory as a badge of courage to celebrate their power. It is a reassurance of their position in society, which paradoxically is both the elite class and the discriminated-against one.  On the other hand, Sooki is not aware of the evil crimes Eric has committed throughout his life, she only sees the tip of the iceberg, and this is seen through rose color glasses since the Viking vampire has been trying to get in Sooki’s pants for as long as he knows her. Sooki wants Eric to recover his memory because she does not know about his past. The audience feels sorry for her, we are aware of what’s waiting for her in case his memory is back. Memory is definitely a hard case to handle.

Sooki’s situation connects with her portrayal as a powerful woman in the show. For the first time, if I remember well, she shows a weakness. Sooki, even though many people may think she is a lame character, has consistently been an extremely independent and powerful character. True Blood has been a show with very powerful women (Tara, Pam, and now Jessica, the young vampire who is starting to feel her power and to live like an independent woman). On the other hand, the male characters are all extremely vulnerable and weak. Bill, Eric, Jason, Sam, Hoyt, Lafayette, all of them have shown their weaknesses, and revealed not to be a strong characters at some point or another. If we think about how is that these characters have shown their weaknesses, we come to the same conclusion: love makes you weaker. Isn’t that a wrong message to send to the audience? I know that love also makes characters in the show stronger, but don’t you think that’s a given?

Soccer

As you probably have already noticed, I am a huge soccer fan. Now, being originally from Spain, most of you are probably thinking that I am either a Real Madrid or Barcelona fan. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! In my opinion, you should only support these two teams if you are NOT a Spaniard, if you are from Madrid or Barcelona, or if, for some reason, you are intimately related to any of these cities.
For me, there is nothing more shameful and ridiculous than being from a city that has a team in La Liga, or even in the Spanish Second division, and still support any of these teams.
Now, that does not mean, I can enjoy watching a game where these teams are present. That, also, would be ridiculous.

I do support, Sevilla FC, and by the way, today we beat SSC Napoli, 1- 2. It was the presentation game for the Italians.

Did you know... that one of the best players of all times, Diego Armando Maradona, played for these two teams?

Political bipartidism and soccer

This is an example of how human stupidity works. Spain is a country where people are experts on ruining excellent opportunities to excel (Before nationalistic heat starts blooming among readers from Spain, I have to say that I'm originally from Spain). In 1977, the newly pro-democracy government allowed for a system that allowed a multitude of parties to be contenders in the political race (about the the Spanish electoral system and the application of the D’Hondt method I may talk in the future). Now, any legal political party can run, but in reality, only two parties PSOE and PP have any chance of winning the elections. Spain has ruined in a little over 30 years the opportunity of having a country with a wide representation of political ideas. In exchange, we are stuck with two sides of the same coin, where a few corporations and "Lords" control the country, represented by half-wit politicians.

The analogy with soccer lays in the boring Spanish La Liga, the strongest league in the world according to FIFA. In the last few years, the difference between the two soccer giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, and the rest of the teams has grown so large that world-class teams as Valencia, Sevilla, or Villareal, or historic teams as Athletic de Bilbao or Atletico de Madrid, talk only about the possibility of finishing third in the so called“other Liga”. (I reserve another post to talk about the share of television revenues among the Spanish teams)

As in politics, people who stop for a second to think about the situation, do not want to have bipartisan systems like these. However, if you do not care too much about politics or soccer, you will try to establish an alliance with one of the powerful sides, no matter how little they have in common with your own conception of politics or soccer. I am not implying that only people that do not have the capacity for deeply analyzing different situations support these two parties or these two teams but, definitely, they make for a high percentage of their mass support.

The Four Great Hypocresies of the Debt Deal

Let me start by saying that I do not always agree with Keith Olbermann's way of express himself in front of the camera, probably because sometimes, paradoxically, it reminds me of some specimens from Fox News. In this occasion, I must say, he has delivered as anyone should have after the agreement on the debt ceiling was announced.

Olbermann addresses, among many others, two very important points in his speech (that you can watch here). One is about the Republican demand of a constitutional amendment to avoid deficit, the other is directly related and, obviously, has to do with the decision to not adding any revenues. With such an amendment in effect, it is scary to think, Olbermann says, what may happen if, God forbid, we are struck by a terrorist attack, or a natural disaster (I don’t have to remind anybody about Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya). If adding revenue is out the game for the government, who is going to pay for the future boo-boos in the economy? The answer, unfortunately, comes straight to your face, YOU!