Story Corps

There is a booth in Central Station that catched my attention the other day. I stopped by, looked and discovered a really cool project called Story Corps.

StoryCorps is a national project to instruct and inspire people to record each others' stories in sound. So they encourage you to invite a loved one and interview him or her on the PhotoBooth. You will take home a CD of the interview and they will add a copy to the StoryCorps collection at the library of Congress American Folklife Center.

For more information, check their site.

El pavo!

Lo siento, pero tenía que compartirlo.
Acción de gracias al más puro estilo yankee. Sólo que esto de tener novio vietnamita, implica que los rollitos primavera y la sopa wongtoon también estuvieran presentes.

Bye, bye Floquet

Floquet de neu (Snowflake) the world's only albino gorilla died yesterday in the Barcelona zoo. He was 38.
Me and all the children from Barcelona that grew up with him, will miss him.

21 grams

Ayer fuimos a ver la nueva peli de Alejandro González Iñárritu, director de Amores Perros. Nos gustó mucho. Super original en la manera de contar la historia, muy cuidada, una dirección de arte muy conseguida, tonos fríos, colores saturados... La recomiendo por lo innovador de la estructura, aunque, por criticar algo, la historia es un poco... plana, quizás? y le falta la frescura de Amores Perros.
Ver trailer aquí.

Rajasthan

I got this wonderful email from Ruth & Eric that are on their "6 months around the world" trip.
(Gloria, quan marxem nosaltres, tia? )

we're in udaipur at the moment - the most romantic city in india - the venice of the east, and it really is something special. rajasthan has been better that we could have imagined. amazing - the landscape, the history, the people, the food, the architecture, the colors, the arts - i am in arts and crafts heaven. The rajputs ruled this part of india for over 1000 years. they were proud warriors, constantly in battle it seems, who built incredible palaces within forts in the middle of the desert. their love of decoration is evident everywhere. it's breathtaking.

from delhi we went to jaipur, capital of rajasthan and also known as the pink city because all the buildings within the old city walls are painted pink. it's quite a sight at sunset. but jaipur is another big city and after delhi, we were quite happy to leave. we took an overnight train to jaisalmer. when we woke in the morning we were in the desert. a totally alien landscape to me. looking out of the window for 7 hours, we barely saw another person - just desert. arriving in jaisalmer is magic. suddenly you see the fort rising out of the landscape. it looks like a giant sandcastle. built of sandstone in 1126 it is one of the only living forts in the world. it's a wonderful place, full of life and the buildings are all carved with the most intricate and exquisite designs.

from jaisalmer we went on the camel trek - so much fun. 3 days and 2 nights in the desert. camels are hilarious, with their floppy bottom lip and nose always stuck in the air and they are SO uncomfortable. the first day was pretty painful, the second day was torturous and the third day was really good. the camels all had exotic names like raja and sheeba, apart from my camel who was called bob dylan. the first day we left at 6am and drove out for an hour to meet the camels and guides. each day we'd ride for a few hours in the morning and then break between 12 and 3 when it got too hot. the guides would build a fire and cook us lunch. we ate really well. the camels carried everything: us, our bedding, food and water. after lunch we'd set off again reaching the sand dunes in time for sunset. once you get them going the camels go pretty fast - riding into the sunset with the desert wind in our hair we felt like we were in a movie! we'd set up camp for the night on the dunes. sleeping under the stars is just magic. our main guide was called khuba and he was quite a character. he kept us entertained singing rajasthani love songs around the campfire - or simon and garfunkal - cecelia was his favorite!

from jaisalmer we got the overnight train to jodphur where we stayed in the maharajas palace (thanks to a birthday gift from erics parents). we were picked up from the train station in the early hours of the morning in a gleaming white old ambassador car and whisked off to the palace where we were treated like apsolute royalty. fantastic. we swam in the pool, chilled out in the sauna, sipped gin and tonics on the terrace ...such a treat especially after how we've been roughing it. and the people are just so warm and friendly and beautiful. we've met such nice people. tomorrow we catch a train to mumbai and then saturday we fly to bangkok and then on to hong kong to stay with ali and jan. they've both finished working so will travel with us for a couple of weeks before they head to booton for christmas.

Etre & avoir

Siguiendo la recomendación de Bea y Andy (gracias!!), ayer vi una de esas películas maravillosas que te hacen salir del cine flotando.
Una tranquila visita a una escuela rural del norte de Francia en la que en la misma clase conviven niños de 3 a 12 años.
La historia no es más que una colección de momentos en la especial relación que un profesor de cincuenta y tantos mantiene con sus alumnos; pero creo que ningún guión ficticio, puede superar el goze de ser partícipe silencioso de una realidad tan preciosa y espontánea.

Feliz Cumpleaños Eider

Happy Birthday Eider!
... to the most guapa chickatina in the whole universe!

If you are reading this, please tell Eider Happy Birthday.
- Jaume

+1

Uno más. 28. Se acercan peligrosamente los 30 !!

Susanne Saenger

Check out more of her work.

Documentary Watching

As some of you know, I am trying to make a documentary, an experience that it's turning to be extremily fun but pretty challenging, specially since I am so awful with the technicalities. (I am glad Jimmy agreeded to be my partner in crime and help out, thanks Jaume!).

So I have been watching more and more documentaries and discovering a great genre I didn't know much about. As someone told me once, why read fiction when there's so much interesting stuff to read about?, and although that statement pretty much kills literature, I find myself agreeing more and more, not only with books but with movies too.

Anyway, I wanted to share my list of recent discoveries. And be open to suggestions.

Here is the list from the class. A chronological history of documentaries:

* Nanook of the North (1922) by Robert Flaherty
* Man with a Movie Camera (1929) by Dziga Vertov
* Triumph of the Will (1935) & Olympia (1938) by Leni Riefenstal
* Atomic Cafe by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty
* Titicut Follies (1967) by Frederick Wiseman
* Four Little Girls by Spike Lee
* Salesman (1969)
* Grey Gardens
* Gimme Shelter (1970)
* Harlan County USA (1976) by Barbara Kopple
* Sherman's March (1986) by Ross McElwee
* Vernon, Florida by Erroll Morris
* Gates of Heaven by Erroll Morris
* Fast, Cheap and Out of Control by Erroll Morris
* This is Spinal Tap by Rob Reiner
* Best in Show by Christopher Guest
* American Movie

New Yorkers

En medio de mi actual obsesión por entender esta ciudad, en la que llevo ya dos años y medio pero a la que me parece que llegué ayer, pero en la que al mismo tiempo me da la sensación de que he vivido siempre; ha caído en mis manos el último número del Time Out, que tiene una visión muy curiosa de lo que implica ser un New Yorker. Una buena guía para los que quieran venir y no parecer turistas.

Cómo ser un auténtico New Yorker:
* tener un mueble que cogiste de la calle y adoptaste como tuyo
* considerar seriamente alquilar un apartamento que tiene la ducha en la cocina
* identificar agosto por el olor
* tener historias que impliquen la presencia de una cucaracha, ratón o bicho en tu apartamento

* ser capaz de identificar y deletrear tu restaurante chino favorito en Mott st (en Chinatown)
* sentarte al lado de un famoso en un bar y no darle importancia
* comprar un par de calcetines en un puestito de la calle
* llegar a la interseccion de la calle 4 y la calle 10 sin perderse.
* tener que seguir viviendo con tu novio/a después de haber roto porque ninguno de los dos tiene pasta para buscarse otro apartamento
* intentar traer algo extremadamente enorme en el autobús de Ikea y luego en el metro
* dejar que un extraño (normalmente una señora rusa o china) lave tu ropa
* mantener una conversación con un taxista sin entender una palabra de lo que dice
* que el señor del carrito donde compras el café cada mañana se de cuenta de que has faltado a trabajar y te pregunte si te encuentras mejor.
* asistir a la New York Gran Opera en Central Park
* comerte un bocadillo de pastrami en pan de centeno
* haber sugerido como todos los restaurantes indios de la calle 6 tienen túneles que conectan las cocinas ya que todos sirven lo mismo
* referirte al edificio Met Life como el Pan Am.
* que te caiga agua de arriba y esperes que sea de un aire acondicionado
* ser incapaz de salir de casa por la mañana sin ver el parte del tiempo en NY1
* disfrutar de una cena para dos que al menos cueste $300

Prestige, one year

It's been a year since the ecological catastrophe that destroyed the
north-west coast of Spain. It's good to remember it to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Ya hace un año. Pasa el tiempo pero la mancha sigue, y sigue el PP. Los votos de la mayoría de los gallegos defraudaron el espíritu solidario que nació espontáneamente en el resto de la península. Ni esto ha podido cambiar las cosas. Un minuto de silencio para recordar aquí o aquí lo que no debería volver a pasar.

Geography Game

How is your geography? Check it out in this embarrasing game.

Para que luego digamos que los americanos son los incultos. Probad suerte en este humillante juego de geografía mundial. Yo de la del Caribe, es que no tengo ni idea!

The Clayton Brothers

Sin mucho comentario porque sigo encerrada aqui a las dos de la mañana, pero miraros esto que merece la pena.

Anja Kroencke

Check out her work..

Margot Knight

Este seguro que no deja a nadie indiferente.
Estas fotos pertenecen a la serie que hizo mientras investigaba en la Fabrica. Podeis ver la serie completa aquí..

Photo Studio

The last issue of Colors Magazine is dedicated to Photo Studios in different parts of the planet.
Check out the website. It has great pictures and insight to the different ways we face the camera.

Sassy Pixie

Check out these cool cards. Katie, a good friend of mine, makes them. Something to think about for this Holidays.
Check out the whole collection.

Una amiga mia ha iniciado la venta de sus tarjetas por Internet. Desde Richmond, Virginia con amor. Echadles un vistazo, son muy femeninas, pero muy guays. Aquí podeis ver toda la colección.

Hannah Carty

Check out the work of this British illustrator.

A great design blog

Jimmy told me about this blog on design. Michael Beirut from Pentagram and Rick Poynor write regularly. Worth checking out.