Ibane’s ramblings
“The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc is bound to be noticed.” S. KierkegaardArchive for January, 2009
Crisis responses
I have been trying to avoid to emit any opinion about the current finance and economic situation for many reasons, among them my opinion is irrelevant and also I don’t have all the information to build one that it is worthy to be considered. On the other, hand seeing how our leaders having privileged access to all kind of information from advisers, institutions…they were not able to foresee what was coming, not even close.
Now that we are sunk in deep dirt, our politicians, policy makers, bankers, finance brains seem to agree that the whole problem is that the coward consumers have stopped to do what apparently is so needed, to consume without limits and control. We have in Spain the prime minister asking (it sounded more begging) to consume as normal to recover faster, in Helsinki metro you can find an ad where they encourage you to consume to save the economy. I am sure you can find similar examples all around the world.
These messages coming from media in different formats made me think, having a naive thought, I thought that these unfortunate happenings would be a very good opportunity to change our economic model, a model that has carried us to have more poverty, more distance between poor and rich, and being very harmful for our environment. However, our leaders seem that the only message is “Please, keep on consuming to keep things the same because we are too incompetent to think something by our own”.
Well, I rebel against this, I am not buying these messages and all that crap, as a voter and a tax payer I demand a better solution from them. I know for some politicians will be the introduction of two activities at the same time, working and thinking. Bankers and corporations are other story.
Vicky Cristina (Wherever)
I watched this film because I still have the excellent memories of watching “Match Point”, which I consider a very good film with a marvelous soundtrack. “Vicky Christina Barcelona” is not close to my favorite one, actually it is pretty far, though I think that it is ok film thanks to the performances of Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Rebecca Hall, who I think that plays perfectly the role of well-educated repressed American girl.
Probably the thing that I dislike most from the film is the way that Woody Allen make us to attend to a tourist bus-tour for Americans in order to please Catalan Government and Barcelona city. I understand that Barcelona needs some promotion since it is selling paellas to Americans one of the main incomes but I truly think that there is another channels for that. Using a film ends up being very gross and I felt like not coming back to Barcelona ever. Woody Allen did the same in “Match Point” and London but it was much more smoother and the story had enough strength to keep location away, this time it seemed the other way around, first location, second story. It seemed that the deal was Woody Allen needed to spend some working-holidays in Barcelona, Catalan politicians see an opportunity to promote the city and voila here we go. I guess that Woody Allen could start a saga with different cities “Vicky Christina Bangok, Sydney, Lima…”, sell t-shirts, mugs and so on. Woody, I am joking, please don’t. As always, politics and art don’t get along very well.
In any case, the film can be watched with no much pain. There are funny moments and hilarious dialogs between Pe and Javier Bardem, however the story lacks of credibility and some solid background where to hold it. Scarlett was unnoticable for me, and that means something.
Anyway, I will go to see next Woody Allen movie hoping that this he has not been enchanted by any politician and he is been able to focus on what he really knows to make, just films.
What I talk about when I talk about running
No, I will not talk about running or maybe a little, it is about the book of the same title written by Haruki Murakami. I have not finished it yet but I have read through enough to build my opinion about it.
It is not a great book or don’t expect any high literature but I definitely recommend the book, even if you are not a runner. Mr. Murakami explains his big moments in life and link them with the running. His situations might be familiar to many because in my opinion he describes the battle of I think that almost everyone goes through and it is finding ourselves and what we want from life. Running here is just circumstancial, I guess that you can substitute for almost any other activity that define yourself. In my case, it is also running and some times Haruki put in written words what I have thought and felt many times when I am out running.
For me running has become my little island where everything else vanish and there is only left my running shoes, my music and the road. And it is something so deep in me that some times I get scared if some day I will not be able to run. That’s maybe the reason why I am planning to take the bike (also thanks to my blog colleague The Real Bookish) and swimming. But as far as I can I will keep running…
Sydney Australia
Getting back…
I just arrived after spending some time in Australia…now I spend the nights of my insomnia due to my jet lag thinking about those days reading Sherlock Holmes stories under the vigorous sun while the ocean tried to cool me with its breeze. Always memories are the ones that keep us floating.
Ibane's ramblings 