dimarts, de gener 02, 2007

A Year of Complicated Transitions: 2006

*Good transitions: Brazil and Chile. To the forefront of Latin America.

*Interesting transitions: Most of Latin America turns left. Except for Mexico.

*Bad transitions: Mexican governments. Under a cloud of suspicion.

*Worse transitions: the American handling of Iraq. It took them 3 years to see the nasty mess they created.

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People I liked

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Enrico Fabris. From the Turin Olympics, 2 gold medals and a bronze. I admired his talent and determination the get the job done, for beating the army of arrogantly immature pool of Americans and for being both charming and very cute at the same time.

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Slavoj Žižek. Author, lectures, theorist, provocateur. Reading two of his books proved both a challenge and great delight, I felt quite alienated from mainstream culture upon reflecting of what Žižek had to say, but nevertheless I’m more than happy to have gotten to know this awesome writer.

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Most Mexican leftists. We were robbed again, yet we managed to protest peacefully and gracefully. Our day will come sooner than later, and then we will have the last laugh.

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Tiësto. I’ve become a huge fan in the last couple of years. I guess we all need larger-than-life figures to fill some void o aspiration in our mundane lives. The Dutchman delivered the music, with very little lyrics on it, and I danced and danced and danced to it like there was no tomorrow.

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Marina Abramovic. I went deeper into her work and I feel pretty much transformed by the great Grand-mother of Performance Art. She’s brilliant, provocative, envelope-pushing. Excellent.

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People I found difficult

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Madonna. Euro-centric, egocentric Madonna had a very good year in 2006, but after almost 20 years of being a fan, she suddenly stopped to have much meaning to me. I guess it’s what we call moving on. Why? I don’t know precisely, perhaps it was her coldly calculated album, which I didn’t find that remarkable, her use of her rather ugly “contralto” voice in her tour, that demonstrated that she’s long forgotten her singing lessons from Evita, or her Anglophilia, which bordered on the ridiculous. I don’t know. I wish her well, though.

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Mexican Football Fans. They believed the hype. They put their fate and went for refuge to their national team. They spent millions traveling to Germany, only to have been rewarded with exactly the same as ever: nothing. The much mediocre Mexican football team delivered yet another forgettable performance at the World Cup. And the Mexicans still dream on and dream away about winning it… for the 78th year in a row. Wake up Mexicans! Move on and support a sport and a group of athletes which really delivers the goods!

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Mexican Right-wingers. Except for one I know, they were vicious. Very vicious. Racist. Class-oriented. Short-sighted, narrow-minded. Vicious. There’s a certain number of people I can’t really look in the eye anymore. And it seems that half of the country came out as being exactly right-wing extremists, bordering on fascism. If only they could see.

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People I disliked

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George W. Bush. For the sixth year in a row. His whole secretaries included.

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The whole Serbian and Republika Srpska governments. They’ve allowed butchers Mladic and Karadzic to make fun of justice for many years now. Wake up Serbian politians! Do you still want to be the pariah nation of Europe?

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Mexican Media. Sell-outs to the Right. Sell-outs to short-sightedness.

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Spanish “consultants” to the Mexican ultra-right wing. Aznar go off you loser.

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Events I enjoyed.

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Turin 2006. I’m a sucker for the Olympics.

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Turbo-Folk. I know I shouldn’t, but everyone’s got his dark sides, right?

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Grbavica. Excellent movie.

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Pan’s Labyrinth. Awesome movie.

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Belgium. Lovely country. Was particularly impressed by Antwerp.

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Getting ordained! Aryaprabha was born and ready to rock’n’roll!

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New conversions in India.