Class #5: (The Guardian Article) Goodbye Mr. Hoskins, you had a good run...

Due the recent death of the English actor Bob Hoskins caused by Pheumonia, I decide to make a summary of an article of The Guardian about him. And because I'm a Journalist, every news article has something to do with my career

But the main reason I choose this topic in partucular is because I love movies and this is my way to pay homage to this form of art.

The Name of the article is: "Helen Mirren on Bob Hoskins: 'A spectacular firework just as it takes off'" and it has 5 pictures of Hoskins acting in movies related to the 3 respondents and it's divided in 3 sections for everyone of them. (I'll put the link to the end of the post)

The article describes the point of view that worked with the actor during his life and describe their experiences and personal thoughs about him. The respondents are: Helen Mirren (British actress who worked with Hoskins in" The Dutchess of Malfi" and "The long good friday"), Shane Meadows (The director of Twenty Four Seven starring Hoskins) and Stephen Woolley (Producer of Neil Jordan's: Mona Lisa also starring Hoskins)

Mirren described Bob as a great actor and person who worked hard and showed a ton of energy in his performances. She said that he was very supportive while they were working on "The long good friday" praising his humility and pointing out that was an honor work with him.

Meadows praised his generosity for agree to work in his first feature film, but also the lessons about bussiness and the advices about being honest to himself. With the sucess of Twenty Four Seven, Hoskins and Meadows travelled to New York to promote the film. The director related how the actor refused to go beacuse Meadows was relegated to third class by the film company.

Woolen talked about the actors that he admirde the most during his life in Islington in the 60's in which he mentioned Bob as a man who performed "straight from the soul" and he opened the path to a whole new generation of actors with his performances.

And that was my post and tribute to Mr. Hoskins... I hoped you like it and as I promised, here's the link... take care...
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/30/bob-hoskins-shane-meadows-helen-mirren-stephen-woolley

Nicolas Maduro got it all wrong…

Socialism is a weird thing. It talks about the fight between social Classes, a thing that happens all the time in the third world countries. It promotes the equality and gives the state a role of serving the greater good instead of being an entity with no real power.

Some people embrace it as the fight for freedom and justice; some others paint it like the Devil and other like me judge it with a very skeptic mentality… and the only conclusion that I can get is… there is nothing wrong with it.

Yes, if you think about it, the Socialism actually can work in theory. You can create a world where everybody has the same rights and help each other in order to survive. But, the real problem and pretty much the same reason of why failed during the cold war is that human beings are selfish, lazy and careless creatures who have different needs and political thoughts that put the individual freedom over the equality… and there’s nothing wrong with that either.

So, why am I making all these talk about politics? Hell, I don’t consider myself a political expert and a lot of other people know more than me, but at least I got the idea of what freedom of speech means… a thing that the current president of Venezuela apparently doesn’t get it.

Maduro wondering if this dialogue will worth it... or it's going to be a big waste of time like what happens all the time... what do you think? 

After the departure and death of Hugo Chavez in 2013, Nicolas Maduro, the Vice-president during that time took the office after the elections in where he competed with Henrique Capriles (which is right now the main representative of the opposition) and won, the Chavez supporters saw in him a figure of great charisma the construction of a new future and the Chavez opponents considered him as the continued of an authoritarian regime that only promised more oppression and less dialogue between the Unasur (which stands for  Unions of South American Nations).

The main problem with Venezuela and the current government is the lack of understanding of both sides, I mean, in April 9^th of this year, after a series of protests about the repression on the streets the President, Capriles and the representatives of Unasur agreed to start a dialogue because the situation was turning critical for the entire country.

But it’s really hard trying to reconcile both left and right in a country with an inflation level that surpasses the 70% remove ministers and deputies for criticizing the president (like what happened to María Corina Machado), close all the news channels that opposed the government and let the military force abuse the people, like what happened to a Young student in the city of San Cristobal who was attacked by the Bolivarian army in February 4^th and triggered the protests in the country.

Other problem with Venezuela is the lack of political representation of other political groups apart from the supporters and the opponents. I mean, the news almost never talked about them and they don’t have real representation in the media. And that’s very bad because if you don’t have other political parties apart of the main two, the country polarizes and the consequences would it be devastating.

And that’s why I think Maduro got it wrong. You can’t try to apply the socialism these days because there’s always going to be disagreements between the people about who are the real oppressors, the black market and the speculation are always going to appear in places with lack of freedom. In the end, there is no real solution, and if there is, it has not been invented yet.

That’s all I have to say. Sorry of the lack of information, but I need to research a little bit more the next time, but anyway. Good Night everybody.

Class #4: Hello Darkness my old Friend, I come to talk with you again

That’s right, now I’m going to talk about the 1964 hit “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. Now I’m going to be very clear: this is NOT my favorite song. It’s a great tune and probably one my favorites, but it’s not the number 1 on my list. I just think this song is good enough to dedicate a post about it. So let’s start with a little bit of history.

Yes, this is the song who appeared in "The Graduate", a very deppresing tune for a film who was labeled as comedy in their time...

Released in October 19 of 1964, this song was written in response of the assassination of John F. Kennedy according to Paul Simon who was trying to describe the angst and depression provoked by this tragic event. The song became an instant hit was described by a lot of critics as the anthem of a new generation.

A lot of teenagers associated this song with the Vietnam War because the lyrics describe a sad old man who feels empty and think his life has no purpose, just like the people who enlisted on the army because they had nothing to lose.

And of course, this song was used in the 1967 movie “The Graduate” with Dustin Hoffman, and believe it or not, the director Mike Nichols didn’t choose this song because it sounded pretty, no. He chose this song because “The Graduate” is a story of a young man who studied in college a career that he didn’t like it, was constantly manipulated by his parents and felt that his life has no real direction.

And what makes it more interesting is that the song is played three times in scenes that reflected the emptiness that the character was going through.

The Lyrics, like I said, describe the feeling of emptiness that a man is suffering because he suffered an existential crisis. The Title, sound of silence makes reference to the fact that nobody is listening to him and the void in his soul it’s so big that even the silence have a sound. It’s the desperation of listen something, have a human response.

I just this little gem from the 60’s because the lyrics are honest and direct, the melody it’s simple and beautiful and the movie “The Graduate” gave it a new meaning that makes it more timeless and culturally significant.

And if you don’t believe me… just listen and judge by yourselves. Take Care.

The Worst Movie I’ve ever seen, Period.

*Warning: Explicit Language

What could you say about Mel Gibson? Well, a lot of things. He can be a brilliant actor, an iconic figure from Hollywood, a controversial person and even can make a decent film once in a while. But, if you look back and analyze the worst things that has ever done in his life, there is one thing that define the figure of Gibson from a respectable figure to a miserable creep who deserves to be beheaded… a movie: The Passion of the Christ (insert dramatic music here)

I just expect that Mel Gigson will go to hell after this...

Oh my god, this movie is the worst piece of shit I’ve ever seen… I’m dead serious. This “movie” is one of the most puerile, vulgar, tasteless, profane, mean-spirited, offensive and just plain disgusting film that I ever watched… and I saw Bad Teacher, Son of the Mask and Foodfight for crying out loud. And being that 10 years have passed since his theatrical release, I think it’s time to rip on it and give this movie the proper punishment that deserves.

I mean, I’m not even Christian and I just hated every fucking minute of this atrocity. Watching this damn thing, it’s just uncomfortable… and maybe you could argue that the point of the film is making you feel the same amount of pain that Jesus suffered when he was crucified, but when I watch a movie, and especially when is about one of the greatest stories ever told and about one of the most iconic characters in the history of mankind, I expect a little bit of charm and empathy… not this shitfest of morbidity made by a religious fucktard who apparently not only loves Christ, but also wants to have sex with him.

But why I despise this move so much? You could find the answer in the very beginning of the movie… We start the film with Jesus being arrested while he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane… that’s right, instead of showing him interacting with his apostles, Mary Magdalene or his own mother (who only appeared in very brief cameos) Gibson shrugged his shoulders indifferently and said: “Who really cares?, I just want to get to the torture scenes because that’s the only thing about Christianity that really matters” lazy jackass.

We get through the scenes where Peter denies knowing Jesus, Judas committing suicide in repentance and all the things you already read in the Bible. But the main problem with these scenes, apart from the god awful acting of all the actors, it’s the lack of empathy that the movie has for them. We know absolutely nothing about them, there’s NO character development at all.

 And maybe you could argue that because the history of Jesus is so big and known to a lot of people, but… again, it’s a movie… and that equals entertainment… the idea is sympathized with the characters… and yes, there’s plenty of people in the world that don’t know the story of Jesus Christ… if a non-follower watch this film without knowing the source material… that person probably would convert to Judaism, Islam or Buddhism.

But none of these things would bother me that much if at least the technical aspect was tolerable. But no, the angles, the shots and the overall cinematography sucks really bad, and I mean BAD. This looks like S&M porn with budget. The way that Gibson directs the scenes it’s so cheap and clumsy that looks like if Michael fucking Bay had directed it.

And that doesn’t even touch the explicit violence in this film. I mean, look… I’m not one of those overly sensitive people who vomit when watch some blood (in fact, one of my favorite TV shows of all time is Game of Thrones), but the way the torture him it’s just unbearable. There’s too much cruelty with no rhyme or reason. And yes, I know that all this things happened to him, but in this movie it seems like the main point of the story to describe us every single minute of a man getting tortured and that’s NOT the most important thing in religion.

Sacrifice and devotion works because we believe in something, we sympathized with something, we mold our life teaching with that. So Gibson missed the whole point focusing on the torture.

The moral lessons of the Bible are secondary because the lack of screen time of the other characters (like I said, the scenes when Jesus interact with them are so short that you wouldn´t even notice them) and apparently, there’s a lot of historical facts that this piece of crap overlooked. Like the Roman Guardians that arrested Jesus in Gethsemane, but they never beat him. That is just a cheap excuse to watch more gratuitous violence. But don’t worry, there’s more unjustified cruelty coming, so don’t leave the theater yet.

And at last but not least: the anti-Semitism issue. Yes, it’s true that there were a lot of Jewish priests that wanted to punish Jesus Christ for his allegations of being the son of God. But Mel “Hitler-lover” Gibson portrayed them in the most cartoonish, stereotypical and unlikeable way so every viewer of this film gets brainwashed with anti-Semitic views. News Flash Gibson: Jews are NOT evil. There’s no such thing as the greedy Jew, or the Muslim terrorist or the annoying Jehovah’s witnesses… all of them are retarded stereotypes created by scumbags like you. Evil exists on everybody, that’s why we created religion, to straighten our lives you crazy fuck.

People… this movie is THE worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life… no talent, no effort, no charm… just pain, horrible, HORRIBLE pain. And if you got the terrible luck to find this god awful dicksauce of a movie on your TV one of these days: KILL YOUR TV WITH FIRE and you will be saved from the traumatizing experience of watch “The passion of the Christ” Take care and Happy Easter everybody.

Class #3: Caesar Salad... I love it... any questions?

Like I said in my previous post, I love the italian culture and stuff. But I forgot to mention other great thing about this milenarian culture, and that is the food. Yes, I know that the Caesar Salad is from mexico, but it was created by an italian inmigrant, so it still counts.

How can look that thing without getting hungry? Seriously...

The reason I love this salad in particular it's sort of like a nostalgia factor. This was one of the first salads I tasted as a child and I loved so much that I annoyed the hell out my mother to prepare me more. I was a little brat back then.

Unfortunadely, I can't eat it as often as I would. But I think is better that way. If I ate Caesar Sallad every day in my life, I would get tired of it very quickly. As I said before, I like being moderated about the things I like because I don't want to be too extreme or overreact when it's not a big deal.

Well, now I'm going to talk about the salad itself. The ingredients are: roman lettuce, croutons, olive oil, parmesan cheese, vinaigrette and sometimes lemon juice or grilled chicken. To prepare it, you need to wash the lettuce and tear it into bite-size pieces, then put it a bowl and take the parmesan and grated it. Then you put it all al together and add some croutons in the top. And finally you add the vinaigrette and olive oil and dinner's ready.

Very easy to prepare, but the result it's quite satisfactory. I strongly recommend it for all the peole who love salads and think that it's just than a simple side for the meal. Just taste it, you're not gonna be dissapointed.

And that's all I have to said for today, goodbye and bon appetit.

By, the way, this is my source for the Caesar Salad preparation:
http://startcooking.com/how-to-make-caesar-salad

Class #2: Any country would it be great... but if I had to choose... Italy

It's kind of difficult choose an especific country, partly because there's too many choices to pick just one. But for the purpose of this post I'm going to choose Italy. Why? because my grand mother had italian descendants and so do I. Do you need more reasons?

As a Kid, I Always thought that Italy was a Boot kicking a rock, because the people are always fighting against everybody... this country kicks ass...

There's so much things about Italy that are fascinating in terms of influence in society. I mean, in terms of mainstream entertainment you got composers like Ennio Morricone, movies like The Godfather and awesome TV shows like the Sopranos. Italy is so prominent when it comes to culture, when italians arrive in some place, they left their marks the same way the Romans conquered every country in Europe.

And when we talk about tourism, you got the tower of Pisa, The Roman Colosseum, The Vatican city for just to name a few. But the real beauty of this country you can find it on the small towns. The italians got this big pride about their culture. They always preserve the old constructions and celebrates their tradition with such a passion. Now, these days it's very hard to find that in Latin America, especially in Chile, but in Italy, being a proud Roman descendant a thing from every day.

Oh, and also I LOVE the Italian food. The Caesar Sallad it's probably one my favourites. And then there's Spaghetti, Pizza, Mozarella Cheese and a lot of other foods that makes Italy so awesome.

Well, There's a lot of other Things I'd Like to said, but I going to keep it for antother moment. So Adios, Ciao, See you later folks.

And as a bonus extra for all of you, a song by Ennio Morricone. Enjoy it:

And Now Something Completely Different

It's...

What’s the big deal with childhood? Why people gets so obsessed with the things that they watch/read when they were kids. I mean, come on, Nostalgia is the most subjective way to judge reality. Not everything was great in the past. If that’s true, people from 2000 years in the past should it be worshipped as a God… oh, wait a second.

Yes, as you could figured out, I’m not a big fan of the “My childhood is awesome” thing, mostly because I find statements like those bigotry and unfair. Yes, it’s true that today there’s awful movies, awful shows and awful music, but that doesn’t mean that the world today is a horrible place to live… you know what I’m talking to, those 90’s kids always saying: “oh, no… my favorite show from my childhood is cancelled, everything is bad now bubu bubu” screw that.

I prefer to see the world and things evolving. The things that I loved from my childhood I love them even more because now I have a new perspective to compare with, but I don’t disdain the present.

Overall, Nostalgia is for dummies… grow up people, its evolution baby…