quieto :: notas curiosity killed the cat, but cats have 9 lives

Trapeador de la Muerte

Juampi es un nuevo amigo y colaborador. Pronto subiré alguna de las cosas en que estamos trabajando juntos. Cuando está aburrido hace videítos como éste. Más en su YouTube.

La luz, la luz, la luz

Para continuar con una semana de amor-odio a Caracas, subo un videoclip para Los Paranoias que dirigió mi querido amigo Lúber Mujica, para que te deleites con las locaciones y la luz más hermosa sobre la faz de la Tierra.

Algo from guayoyo motion graphics on Vimeo.

Bolaño: The Caracas Speech

Roberto Bolaño is a Chilean writer. When he won the Rómulo Gallegos award he gave this acceptance speech in Caracas (excerpt):

It was then that I had the first conscious inkling of my dyslexia. I shot with my left leg but wrote with my right hand. That was a fact. I would have liked to write with my left hand, but I did it with my right. And that, right there, was theproblem. For instance, when the coach would say, “Pass it to the guy on your right, Bolaño,” I wouldn’t know where to pass the ball. And sometimes, even, playing along the left flank, hearing my coach shout himself hoarse, I would have to stop and think: left—right. Right was the soccer field, left was kicking it out of bounds, out toward the few spectators, children like me, or toward the miserable pastures that surrounded the soccer fields of Quilpue, or Cauquenes, or the province of Bío-Bío. With time, of course, I learned to have a reference every time I was asked or informed about a street that was on the right or the left, and that reference was not the hand with which I wrote but the foot with which I kicked the ball.

And with Venezuela I had, more or less around the same time—meaning until yesterday—a similar problem. The problem was its capital. For me, the most logical thing was for the capital of Venezuela to be Bogotá. And the capital of Colombia, Caracas. Why? Well, by a verbal logic, or a logic of letters. The v in Venezuela is similar, not to say related, to the b in Bogotá. And the c in Colombia is first cousin to the c in Caracas.

I can’t distinguish right from left either.

PS: I know, this post should be in spanish, but I didn’t find the speech in spanish and didn’t dare to translate Bolaño back from english.

Condenados

Siempre que llego a Caracas, cuando salgo del último túnel y se empieza a ver la ciudad, quiero bajar las ventanas. Respirar el aire de Caracas, sobretodo cuando vienes del DF, es como inhalar un elixir.

Le doy al botón para bajar el vidrio y no pasa nada. Le pregunto al conductor si puede quitarle el seguro, y dice que esos vidrios no pueden bajar.
-Están condenados. Desde que blindamos la camioneta no se pueden bajar los vidrios de atrás. Y los de alante sólo bajan hasta la mitad.
-Condenados estamos los que venimos atrás, que no podemos bajar los vidrios.

Así está Caracas. Violenta. Cada vez que voy, con una frecuencia de por lo menos seis meses, noto más tráfico, noto más motorizados, me hablan de más inseguridad. Esta vez el efecto fue más pronunciado. Por primera vez en casa fueron enfáticos en las recomendaciones de tener cuidado en la calle, de andar sin reloj, de no sacar la cámara de fotos, de quitarle la pulsera a la bebé…

Así está Caracas. Al parecer así está el resto de Venezuela también. El timón en manos de un loco. Sin ley. Sin autoridad. Condenada a la violencia.

Feist on Sesame Street

UPDATE: Apparently this was a leak. If the embedded video above shows “video no longer available,” do not despair and visit the official Sesame Street on YouTube.

via swissmiss

¿Por qué fotografías?

Por que me obliga a ver con atención lo que me rodea.

Say Cheese or Get Out of the Picture

Sony’s Cybershot series and a bunch of other cameras promise to

Automatically capture smiles with Smile Shutter™ technology and focus easily with Steady Shot mode.

I imagine a commercial for these cameras soundtracked by an REM mashup: Bad Day vs. Shiny Happy People.

Children in the Mail

After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

The quote and picture are taken from the Smithsonian Institution’s flickr stream. I wonder when we’ll be able to send children through email.

via Kottke

Darth Vader Being a Smartass

Mystic Ball