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 February, 2009
European politicians and some ramblings
Here I am, writing in an Iberia’s flight in my way to Madrid. Surprisingly the flight is on time and the flight attendants are not bitter, these two marks are usually distinctive in Iberia. Another fact that supports this, in Iberia Magazine, the CEO has a letter to the passengers apologizing by the mess (I guess he has different templates, since he must be using them so often). So here it is a bit of advice, if you visit Madrid, try to avoid as much as possible Iberia and Telefonica Customer Service. You will thank me. Obviously, if you have masochist tendencies I strongly recommend Telefonica Customer Service, and try for example to change your DSL line to a different address, it is going to be very tasty for you.
My flight is going through Brussels, which means that we are loading our plane with different European politicians and European civil servants. I don’t know how many of those guys are in Brussels, last time I have read that there are like 800 European MPs, plus 25000 staff. Then I was leaning in my seat, looking through the Belgium sky, and the figures start to fly, travel expenses by 800, translators, assistants, laptops, hotels,… and I got dizzy. I guess that with the European Parliament and European Commission we are trying to give an example of inefficiency, waste of resources, useless approach with no benefit for the citizen so it can be shown as a lesson not to be repeated later. Don’t get me wrong, I am in favor of a European Union, and I think that the way to go is to strength it, but with this army of bureaucrats overlapping competences and structures I am not sure if it is the way. Nowadays, we might have up to 4 directives or laws to address the same issue, one from your local government, another from the Regional Government, another from Central Government and the European one. As a tax payer, I get really uneasy when I see these legions of politicians traveling for example to support trade, the case of Spain for example, we have regional governments going to China to strength our commercial relations between Cataluña or Madrid and China, then 2 months later we send another bunch of them (this time we include our King in the trip, for the pictures, I guess) for the same, and finally we send a commission of Spanish European MP and at this point you don’t know any more.
The other day I got the papers to vote in the next European elections, and being honest I don’t feel like voting, I don’t share the current view and I demand more efficient institutions that really represent the interest of the citizens and not a bunch of guys bullshitting in Brussels with the translators, with lorries moving around tons of papers in 37 different languages and all that. European MPs, you need to work harder to get my vote.
By the way, as usual, Iberia lost my luggage…
Richmal Crompton and the pleasure of the things well done
My post today is about how nice and pleasant is to see that someone is taking time and effort to create something that deserves to use with care and pleasure. It was some years ago when happened to know that my favorite writer, Javier Marias (I might dedicate a post to him, let’s see), had decided to enter in the tough world of book publishers. So he set up a publishing company named Reino de Redonda, the name has a very literary origin but I let you to find out with some few googlings. The most remarkable difference about the books he was publishing was not only the content, which had very interesting and fascinating titles, it was also the care and good quality of the books. All of them are hardcover, the paper used has a better quality than usual, the font size make the life easier for your eyes and others details that makes you to really enjoy the book. I think that I would enjoy even if it were the instructions of my DVD player.
The first book I bought in this format was “The House” (“Dread Dwelling” in USA). I remember that days reading the book and not wanting to finish it, paging slowly in my favorite cafe, and I can’t avoid smiling. The story itself is very good and if you are into ghost stories is a must to read this one. I think that having that excellent edition made me to like it more.
I really appreciate to Javier Marias to make this effort in these days where the fast, the superficial, the buy and throw culture that we are immerse is clearly dominant. Thanks.
The Wrestler (2008)
I belong to those who admire “Requiem for A Dream”, I was fascinating for that movie, the intensity of the tragedy and the no hope ending caught me, apart from the soundtrack that I think that it is one of the best pieces of Clint Mansell.
So I was ready to watch the movie in a good mood expecting something deserved to be watched. And I was not disappointed, I really liked it, and I think that Mickey Rourke is superb in his role, though some times you feel that he is not even acting, that he is playing himself, but who cares. He is amazing and he is able to transmit a very wide range of feelings to the spectators, you love his character, Randy the Ram, also you hate him when he screwed it up, you feel sorry, sad, pain, mercy. Basically Mickey Rourke manages to do what an actor suppose to do, acting.
The story has a solid script and Darren manages extraordinary well the tempos and with that short shots allows you to feel closer to the story. Some times you feel that you are watching a documentary rather than a fiction film. Probably the fact that there is no soundtrack, I mean that there is no a composed song for the movie, just a bunch of a good songs that are played in the background it helps to have this feeling of documentary. Don’t get me wrong, this fact does not diminish the quality of the film, actually I think that it was necessary to give more strength to the story.
I enjoyed the movie and I got the feeling that maybe we get back to the track and we start to see some good movies. It is well known my opinion about the poor quality of movies nowadays. This one definitely breaks that tendency and though I don’t generally share the Oscar awards nominations, in this case I think that Mickey Rourke with all merit 
deserves it. I don’t care if he wins it or not. Who cares.
Ibane's ramblings 