The Lives of Others

"Das Leben der Anderen"
Best Foreign Language FilmAn East German domestic surveillance specialist listens in
on "The Lives of Others."
“The Lives of Others” is haunted by a piece of music called “Sonata for a Good Man,” composed for the film by Gabriel Yared and, at the same time, magically familiar to some of its characters. Like the story that surrounds it — a suspenseful, ethically exacting drama, beautifully realized by the writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck — Mr. Yared’s piece is melancholy, elegant and complicated. Goodness, as a subject for art, risks falling prey to piety and wishful thinking, but “The Lives of Others” never sacrifices clarity for easy feeling. Posing a stark, difficult question — how does a good man act in circumstances that seem to rule out the very possibility of decent behavior? — it illuminates not only a shadowy period in recent German history, but also the moral no man’s land where base impulses and high principles converge. A. O. Scott, The New York Times

Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois

Click To Play

written by: Sufjan Stevens

When the revenant came down,
We couldn't imagine what it was.
In the spirit of three stars.
The alien thing that took its form.
Then to Lebanon, oh God.
The flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow.
Oh, history involved itself.
Mysterious shade that took its form.
Or what it was, incarnation, three stars.
Delivering signs and dusting from their eyes.

UFO Tv Show

British science fiction television series UFO

Premiered: September 1, 1970

American actor Ed Bishop as

Commander STRAKERBritish actress Gabrielle Drake
(Sister of the late singer Nick Drake)
"Around 1970, the British and American governments receive incontrovertible evidence that aliens exist and are abducting humans. In cooperation with the UN, they set up a secret worldwide organization, SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation), which operates in the 1980s. With resources and equipment under the seas, in the air, on land, in orbit and on the Moon, SHADO's purpose is to stop the alien incursions and find out why the aliens want humans". Tv.com

UFO Tv Show

One very short video-II

MANU CHAO IN CONCERT !

Mayo 30
Bill Graham Civic Auditorium de San Francisco"Mis estimados buen dia!
Despues de tanto rollo, me dice Josh que el descuento
va para los que hagan la compra a traves de este
enlace. Mañana inicia la venta.
Asi que da lo mismo si cada uno compramos nuestros
boletos. De todas formas luego nos ponemos de acuerdo
para reunirnos y tomarnos unos tequilas antes de
llegar al concierto, zas?"
http://www.manuchao.tickets.musictoday.com/ManuChao/calendar.aspx
Abrazos,
Chelis

One very short video

Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band

FINAL TWO WEEKS !

Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib will only be on exhibit until March 23.

Make plans to see it now!
Photos: Alex
Fernando Botero-Berkeley 2007

Chilean President-First Year in Office

Photo: El Mercurio

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind !

SOY IDOLO TUYO

Por LAPERLA & MORAN

-Para leer, hacer click sobre la imagen-

Tintin at the Pompidou Center in Paris

Photo: AP
El 19 de Febrero pasado termino la muestra de su creador-Hergé, en el Centro Pompidou de Paris. La compañía DreamWorks de Steven Spielberg se ha comprometido para producir al menos una película de Tintin.

Tres Recomendaciones Musicales:

Caetano VelosoBunbury & Vegas
Jorge DrexlerTres grandes recomendaciones para esta Primaver(Otonho para otros). Para los "mas fanaticos" tenemos tambien a los Heroes del Silencion en su tan esperada gira mundial. La fecha confirmada y mas cercana para nosotros, es el 29 de Septiembre en el FORUM DE LOS ANGELES.

Paisajes III-Marzo

Photo: Alex
View from the House-SLC Valley, Utah
Interstate "I-80 East" - Nevada

ON POSSIBILITIES

Bjork &
Raimundo Amador - So Broken

ON JAZZ

Photo: Alex - Golden Gate Park, SF.

“That’s our

rhythm, our

time:

no ideo-

logy but the liberty

of sound

sense in the midst

of all these

things

and mega-things, these

plusses and surplusses

while by exploitation

we're subtracted,

divided, destroyd.”

Extracto del poema "On Jazz "de Jack Hirschman

ON TRANSLATION

Traduciendo a Bob Desesperadamente

Photo: Chronicles : Volume I

“resuta que no es nada sencillo traducir a Dylan. Las letras de las canciones de Dylan no gozan de la simpleza sentimental o del simple surrealismo de los The Beatles, no se apoyan en el privitivismo sexual de las de The Rolling Stones, no deslumbran con la precision narrativa y costumbristas de las de Ray Davies(The Kinks) y no ayudan con el sentido casi matematico de lo poetico de las de Leonard Cohen. Las letras de Dylan son relampagos que nunca caen en el mismo sitio dos veces, y de hecho, es el mismo Dylan quien se encarga en sus conciertos –territorio por donde segun el pasa la verdadera obra y se juegan las mas grandes apuestas- de reescribirlas y mutarlas en vivo y en directo para el desconcertado placer de sus fans.”
ROCKDELUX por Rodrigo Fresan.

Vivencias - Poesia - Estilos Musicales & Mucho +

Harmi(the Moroccan Painter) & The Master Musicians of Joujouka

The next three entries of this blog are dedicated to “El Mirador de Los Pinos”.
For the past 18+ radio shows, *"El Monje I" has taken us on a magical journey,
from the streets of Tangier, to his native Chile, traveling in this vast ocean of musical possibilities.

"La Valiente Audiencia"
Photo: Alex- "A View from the Pine Trees"
* El Monje I, Lives in a small coastal town in Chile overlooking the Pacific Ocean

Mr. Caballito de Mar

Photo: Alex Photo: Alex-Old Building SF.

Photo: Alex-'Stencil de la Calle"
"Mr. Caballito de Mar sabe que los nuevos edificios-departamento destruyen la cultura"

...nos despedimos por ahora de SF., hasta la proxima !
Buenas Noches.

Tin Tin and the Broken Ear

Tin Tin - The Broken Ear Part. I

Tin Tin - The Broken Ear Part. II

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin, Dutch: De Avonturen van Kuifje) is a series of comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). Remi's pen name Hergé came from transposing his initials "R-G", which sounds like "Hergé" in French. The series first appeared in French in a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle on January 10, 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, The Adventures of Tintin presents a number of characters in distinctive settings. The series has continued as a favourite of readers and critics alike for over 70 years. The hero of the series is the eponymous character, Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included Captain Haddock and other colourful supporting characters.The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums (23 in all), spun into a successful magazine and adapted for both film and theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date. The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire style. Engaging, well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy; mysteries; political thrillers; and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Source: Wikipedia

Feliz Año Nuevo Chino !

... desde San FranciscoPhotos: Alex

Vitrina en SF- "The Blue Lotus" & The Year of the Pig (boar)

“Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for centuries, which predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) we use at the present day which goes back only some 425 years. The calendar measures time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in months, years and centuries, entirely based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars”.

Paisajes II-TREES

Photos: Alex

Mondrian-Gray Trees

“Research shows that nature positively affects all aspects of life-for individuals and communities. Nature has the potential to make a difference in the way people experience the world, improving their physical and mental well-being, as well as providing them a context within which to adapt and grow. A&M researcher Robert Ulrich found that patients who could see trees from their windows healed faster and required lower doses of painkillers than those who could only see a brick wall”.

Botero-Abu Ghraib

Photos: Alex-Berkeley 2007
Gran interes mostro la muestra del artista Colombiano Fernado Botero en Berkeley-California esta semana.
“La gente olvidaria Guernica si no fuera por la obra maestra de Picasso”. Botero

“The 73-year-old Colombian artist spent 14 months painting a series of 80 drawings and paintings that depict pain, degradation and torture -- all in the style of his more popular work. He said he wasn't intending to "shock people or to accuse anyone" with his Abu Ghraib depictions. He didn't do them for commercial reasons (they're not for sale). "You do it because it is in your gut, you are upset, you are furious, you have to get it out of your system.".Nonetheless, he hopes that as Abu Ghraib fades from memory -- the prison is slated for demolition -- the paintings will be a reminder of what happened there. "People would forget about Guernica were it not for Picasso's masterpiece," he said. "Art is a permanent accusation”. SFChronicle

Hypersea Presents: Voices Without Borders

La Idea

El Material & Las Instrucciones

La Fiesta

Photos: Alex
Entrevistas

Photo: Josh
Los Participantes

A participatory Mural Making Event
"Come and participate to produce the 6th temporary mural at Clarion Alley of San Francisco. The mural, led by artists Susana Aragon and Mabel Negrete (project leader), addresses the concerns of the family program Casa Corazón of Instituto Familiar de la Raza through a participatory process that celebrates the values and challenges of migrating and adapting to a new society. The Instituto Familiar de la Raza provides mental health, social services and leadership support to Chicano/Latin American families of San Francisco."

SATURDAY - JANUARY 27, 2007 - 12-6pm
12-6pm at Clarion Alley, San Francisco
(Btw. Valencia St. and Mission St. / 17th St. & 18 St.)

Fin a ocupación de Irak !

Photos: Alex

Miles de manifestantes exigieron ayer en San Francisco poner fin a la ocupacion estadounidense en Irak.

Sundance 2007

Photos: Alex.

“Founded by Robert Redford in 1981 in the mountains of Sundance, Utah, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work. Since its inception, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, writers, playwrights and theatre artists”.
http://festival.sundance.org/2007/

Mr.Santo nos comenta directamente desde Sundance, que vio un film de Mr. Crispin Glover llamado: "It is Fine, Everything is Fine":
“It was quite the interesting movie. Some people would call it weird. I would say it was strange, even bizarre". Luego Mr. Santo nos dice: “I also had the opportunity to see a documentary on Joe Strummer, "The Future is Unwritten". It was excellent !”.
Segun nos cuentan, el Santo fue confundido con una "estrella de cine" mientras caminaba muy bien acompanhado por esa frias calles de Sundace.

Director David Lynch - Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

Photo: Alex 01-20-2006
"El Pez Gordo" autografiando libro para Alex
David Lynch hablando sobre Meditacion, Creatividad y algo de Cine en San Jose - CA.

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

Photophone: Alex
Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco

“The 1960s were years of intense social and cultural tumult; it was the Age of Aquarius, when change was in the air, revolution on the horizon, and all things seemed possible. Some looked to transcendental meditation, free love, Black Power, or LSD. But for others, Jim Jones, the charismatic and forceful leader of Peoples Temple, offered the perfect balance of spiritual fulfillment and political commitment. Jones not only preached about integration and equality, but also built an organization that provided food, clothing, and shelter to his congregation and his community.
On the surface, Jim Jones and his multiracial congregation, Peoples Temple, espoused the values of a model society. But in the summer of 1977 an article in New West magazine exposed the truth. Defectors and family members gave accounts of physical, sexual, and drug abuse, financial corruption, and members being held against their will.
On November 18, 1978, over 900 members of Peoples Temple died in the largest mass suicide/murder in history. Using never-before-seen archival footage and survivor interviews, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple tells the story of the people who followed Jim Jones from Indiana to California and finally to the remote jungles of Guyana, South America in a misbegotten quest to build an ideal society”.

Fire Light Media Films

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!Photo: (waiting for credit)

Woody Allen marches to his own beat

Photo: Alex -Dec. 20 2006
Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band
Fox Theatre -Redwood City,CA.

"Film buffs assume Woody Allen would like to be Charlie Chaplin or Ingmar Bergman. The fact is, he might prefer to be 1930s clarinet virtuoso Sidney Bechet.
Allen is no dilettante. Jazz has always been his great passion. Eddy Davis, the New Orleans Jazz Band's music director/banjoist/vocalist and longtime Allen pal, says, "He loves to play music more than anything. But he knows he has to make films to be able to do so." Davis met Allen in Chicago in 1963, while he was attending music school and fronting a jazz band at the Bourbon Street club. Allen was doing stand-up at Mr. Kelly's and would sit in with Davis at every opportunity.
In the '90s, they put a rehearsal band together, which was different from the band Allen had been playing with socially at Michael's Pub in New York, and the new focus was New Orleans Dixieland.
Allen's band performs at Cafe Carlyle in New York every Monday night, and such legends as Benny Goodman, Toots Thieleman and Mel Torme (on drums!) have joined in the musical fun.
Davis points out that when Dixieland began it was considered an avant-garde music form. "It was different than anything else that had come before it. It was like when rock 'n' roll started, something new was happening. It was a pop form of music."
Davis says music naturally re-creates itself. "Music doesn't get used up. It just gets copied after a while. People go back and emulate the stars and that kills every form of music. Everybody would like to play like Louis Armstrong or Charlie Parker. But there's only one Louis Armstrong. Only one Charlie Parker. To copy them is not doing any justice to the music - where it came from," says Davis, the "Manhattan Minstrel," who early in his illustrious career played with the Turk Murphy Band at San Francisco's Earthquake McGoon's.
When the New Orleans Jazz Band plays, its energy breathes new life into the genre. However, Davis is well aware that the band draws packed houses, not because of the endless appeal of Dixieland, but because there are a lot of curious movie buffs out there. "Everybody goes to a happening. People come to see Woody, because he's Woody Allen". By Paul Freeman

El Poema Silencioso del Camino. Versión 2

Foto : Alex Dec. 2006

"Camino pedregoso entre los campos
amarillo, verde y azul
Grandes nubes blancas hacia las montañas
Escucho mis pasos en el camino polvoriento
Cardos en flor
Pàjaros que se pierden en la claridad.
Por tres palabras que trato de enhebrar,
el mundo se despliega en un manto multicolor
Sòlo sigo la visiòn
Soy parte de un enorme poema
del que apenas puedo dar cuenta."

Ignacio B.
Para Alex, 17 de diciembre 2006

Fallecio Pinochet - Ex-Chilean dictator Pinochet dies at 91

El ex dictador Augusto Pinochet, fallecido a las 17:15 GMT de este domingo en Santiago a los 91 años de edad, será recordado en Chile como un actor fundamental de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, con una herencia en que los crímenes contra los derechos humanos y la corrupción opacan definitivamente al estadista que algún día pretendió ser. (IPS)
"Pinochet's dictatorship laid the groundwork for South America's most stable economy, but his crackdown on dissent left a lasting legacy: His name has become a byword for the state terror, in many cases secretly supported by the United States, that retarded democratic change across the hemisphere. Pinochet died with his family at his side at the Santiago Military Hospital on Sunday, a week after suffering a heart attack".