Sunday, December 14, 2008

Christmas lights

Puerta del Sol
Paseo de RecoletosCalle de AlcaláAtochaCalle de Preciados

Third Reich

Yesterday, I watched a German movie called "Der Untergang", or "The Downfall" in English, about the last days of the Tausendjähriges Reich in the Führerbunker. Hitler's madness, cold evil of Magda Goebbels, rational reasonings of the army generals, all blended into a quite good movie. There are only three "good" persons there, the young secretary, obviously, because it's her story; Ernst-Günther Schenck, the heroic SS doctor taking care of the wounded ones, but whose real story is way darker; and finally Albert Speer, the talented first architect of the Reich and later a successful Minister of Armaments and War Production:

Speer pays a risky visit to Hitler on April 22, when the Chancellery is already under a heavy bombardment from the advancing Red Army, and informs Hitler that he hasn't followed his Nero decree to destroy all German infrastructure in areas soon to be abandoned due to the Allies advancing. Leaving the bunker, he turns around to see what is left of his masterpiece, greatly damaged Chancellery:

Unfortunately, there is nothing left of that building now, it was demolished by the Red Army and the stones used for a War memorial, so we can just guess how the statues of Die Wehrmacht and Die Partei by Arno Bekker must have impressed the visitors:

In a strange turn of coincidence, Albert Speer was a featured Wikipedia article yesterday. In addition, BBC is reporting a new life awaits Prora, a planned Nazi holiday supercity, whose almost 5km-long stretch of buildings and swimming pools should have accommodated around 20,000 New Germans.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Folie à deux

The new FOB album is finally out! Seems that the Patrick's voice qualities are proportional to his body mass, LOL. He hasn't sounded better. My favourites:
- What a Catch, Donnie (of course, I've blogged about that song before)
- (Coffee's For Closers)
- Tiffany Blews
- w.a.m.s.
- America's Suitehearts

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The three words


Two tortured souls... and the two best characters on TV. On January the 5th, here I come!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Soul

Yesterday I tried to break my cold-related imprisonment and we went for a coffee. Talking about some stuff, my friend told me that he had to eat again his mother's paella today even though he doesn't like it but they have it for lunch every Sunday. I look at him slightly surprised and told him that if that happened to me I would just make a quick steak for myself and eat it with the rest of the family, considering it not a big issue. He was then even more surprised by my reaction and he said: but that's my mother's food! I realized what I love about this place and its people: under the thick armour that is so hard to penetrate, there is a golden heart and the purest intentions. A funny thing happened in that café: we entered and the camareros asked us if we wanted one double espresso and one with milk, something what we ordered there last time, but it was like 2 months ago! I guess a hairless guiri accompanied by a hairy Jesus Christ is an unforgettable experience, LOL.