Jan the Sentimental, part 2

I have just received an e-mail from my soulmate and I am crying over this damn keyboard...
The Smiths once made a song called "Still ill" and it goes like this:
But we cannot cling
to the old dreams anymore,
no, we cannot cling
to those dreams.
Does the body rule the mind
or does the mind rule the body?
I dunno...

Samurai & the Wild West

John Galliano, Spring/Summer 2007
(Oh, the bottom right corner...)

Real fashion

After reading about a fashion faux pas of Mr. Wolfowitz, I have decided to post some real fashion.

Dsquared², Spring/Summer 2007

deARTed

Today, I have visited an annual art fair called DEARTE Contemporáneo that shows collections of modern art that are carried by participating Spanish galleries. This year, it was its Sixth Edition. The artists represented there should have illustrated various tendendencies in a contemporary art. Unfortunately, the whole place was just too money-oriented to truly appreciate the idea behind the whole project.

I miss Interpol

El truco final

Today I went to see "The Prestige", another movie about magicians. The cast was stellar: the Tesla character was portrayed by David Bowie and the two competing and obsessed magicians were played by Christian Bale (who is getting cuter and staying hot) and Hugh Jackman.

One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula

Burak Özçivit

















Some music worth considering:

• The Good, The Bad and The Queen
• Vega4
• Dengue Fever
  
• Cold War Kids

THE warmest jacket

Madrid, Spain. Minus 6 degrees on my way to the lab today. We had some snow yesterday. Why, oh, why? I had to dig out the world-famous warmest jacket from my closet this morning. Joder.

X-man

Today I saw a very cute guy on a train. Shaved head, business outfit, around 30 years old... all you can ask for. We exchanged some smiles and then he reached for his bag and took out a copy of an X-men comics magazine. It was so funny and unexpected that it makes me smile even 5 hours after.

What do I miss (a.k.a. Jan the Sentimental)

• stopping by at the girls' house after Sunday swimming for a cup of coffee and finding Stef in her pyjamas talking to her aunt
• getting home from the Menagerie with Tonito and Paskalin and popping some B12
• raging the University Ave (or the 91) with Ramontxe to get to the Menagerie (or the VIP)
• getting drinks from Dean at the front bar to get fucked up early or from Bradley by the dancefloor because he is so damn cute
• going for a double espresso to the "New Starbucks" to see Adrian working at the ice cream place
• going to see the French movies on Mondays because it so intellectual
• kissing strangers in the Menagerie's "darkened underpass"
  
• getting crispy fish tacos at 4 in the morning with Ramontxe and eating them in the mountains behind Massachusetts Ave
• making coffee at the BPS in the morning and pushing Stef to drink it with me when she doesn't have any time
• making out on the Menagerie stage with Adrian
  
• shopping with Mel, Stef, Paskalin and Tonito at the Ontario Mills
• ...
  

New obsession

Chad White
ETRO Milano 2007

Games

I should be studying for my Spanish exam, but I am having fun instead... Yesterday, I called Marco and together with Alicia and Govi we tried to go to see an exhibition of M.C. Escher in Centro de exposiciones Arte Canal, but unfortunately the only thing we saw was a gigantic queue. If art was not meant for us that night, then at least some booze surely was. Ana and Willy joined us for beer and dinner in Lavapiés and later we hit a funny café close to Tribunal, where people go to play board games! We've played the Trivial Pursuit and the Pictionary and even though they were in Spanish, I had a lot of fun.

Wise men

¡Felices Reyes! The two-week-long Spanish Navidad is over. Yesterday, we celebrated the last day of Christmas with a traditional Roscón de Reyes in the house of Alicia and Ana. Marco was finally back from Italy and the usual suspects included also Mar, Govi and Willy. The Ecuadorians were also preparing some punch-like hot drinks from strange fruits with even weirder names like naranjillas. On Sunday, I went to see Marie Antoinette, a new movie by Sophia Coppola. I was impressed by the avant-garde preview trailer, unfortunately, the actual movie is pretty conventional and the 80's music is mixed with classic tunes to an uninspirational mess. The acting performances were surprisinly good, though. Yes, I did like Jamie Dornan, of course I did, LOL.

Doce Uvas de la Buena Suerte

New Year's Eve! I was invited to spend this precious night with Antonio and José Manuel. It was one of those last minute arrangements, but they are usually the best. I was on the phone with Stephaninounette when A. called me and I had to hurry up, because the subway was supposed to be out of service at 21:30 and I was meeting Rubén and Jesús at the Alonso Martínez Metro station in less than 20 minutes. We had a wonderful dinner and then I experienced that special Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes, one on each chime of the clock. Cool! Apparently, the "tradition" goes back to 1909 (only), when smart grape growers in Alicante found out what to do with their over-production. Then we watched some TV (I wanted to see Jesús Vázquez, but no luck) and I was getting more and more drunk, but because the wine was really good, I didn't have any headache the day after. On the 1st of January I went to see Quinceañera and I almost cried in the cinema when I saw LA and all the stuff I left behind. For a good recovery from such trauma, I am posting a picture of Jesse Garcia from that movie.