Danielelmochuelo

Right now, I'm paying attention to two electoral campaigns: the Spanish legislative and the US Republican Primaries. In both two cases, it's difficult to find differences between the main puppets... sorry, I mean candidates. The programs have just been hidden and the debates are focused on the Romney's mormonism or on different Rajoy's salaries. So, to spend Saturday's evening, I went to the cinema to watch the fourth film directed by Clooney, set in the Presidential Primaries of the Democratic Party. Clooney is not only one of the best payed faces of the star system, but also a citizen worried about the political involution of American society. He is a “liberal” in the American meaning of the term. He produced and starred the great “Syriana” to show the inextricable mixture of corporations' interests, corruption, lies and money squandering from federal budget, which is the very essence of US foreign politics. Who overthrew and killed Gaddafi? Are the Talibans ...

The city where I am living is not an American ordinary medium-size one. There's, even, a comic shop! So, I had to buy a volume with the complete compilation of this famous comic-book series, (1982-85 and 1987). On this blog, we already reviewed the homonym film (2006) inspired by the comic. Nowadays, the characters and the dystopia imagined by Allan Moore have become more fashionable than ever, in this rare Fall of massive demos against the plunder of public budgets and the democracy's kidnapping. Unfortunately, I am not very keen on comics, but I have enjoyed nicely the drawing by David Lloyd. But not only the arts impressed me. I read repeatedly some of the chapters in order to grasp the deep and abundant topics suggested by the story. There are several important differences between the comic and the film. The comic doesn't stress so much the discussion about the justification of political violence to change an oppressive regime. In the comic, the British Norsfire regime,...

En la ciudad donde vivo hay tres cines. Y contrariamente a lo que uno esperaría, también ponen cine raro, es decir, cine NO norteamericano. Así que el otro día fui a ver una peli irlandesa que no sé si se habrá estrenado en España. Aunque la peli estaba bien, fue, en lo lingüístico, una mala elección. Porque una de las cosas con las que juega el argumento es con los muchos acentos del inglés: uno del FBI (D. Cheadle) que tiene que investigar en la Irlanda rural las cosas malas que hacen unos narcotraficantes que vienen de Londres. A veces, hasta le hablan en gaélico los granjeros que no entienden qué hace por allí un negro con lo lluvioso que ha salido el día. Es decir, demasiado para mi nivel. El protagonista es un viejo policía de la Garda (la poli rural irlandesa), que se bebe todo lo que le ponen delante y que se va de putas en los días de permiso. Es decir, un policía normal y corriente. El tipo no quiere que le den mucha faena, así que lo que le gustaría es que el negro del FBI ...

The movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer" (1993), by S.E. Zaillian in his directorial debut is, maybe, the best film ever made about chess and chess world. If I remember rightly, I wrote something about this movie some years ago on this blog . Usually, chess-based films are pieces of nonsense unable to grasp the magic and the passion that stir the hearts of players all around the world. "Searching for Bobby Fischer" is such an interesting film about the subject because the game itself is not the point of the plot. Indeed, it's a movie about the relationship between fathers and sons. More accurately, about how fathers project their dreams of grandeur and success on their sons, specially on the more gifted ones. Fortunately, the film was screened in Europe. Its British title was the slightly absurd "Innocent moves". It was corrected translated into Spanish as "En busca de Bobby Fischer". I've just received an e-mail from a chess-colleague...

Mi primera quincena en la Costa Oeste ha sido placentera y enriquecedora. El oído lucha contra el idioma del que pretendo apoderarme y el corazón contra las nostalgias. Solo la tristeza por la grave enfermedad de un amigo y compañero ha oscurecido mis primeros días aquí. El despacho que me han asignado y que comparto con otros turistas académicos es una hermosa biblioteca con una chimenea que ignoro si se encenderá en invierno. Hay una buena colección de libros sobre historia de la ciencia y de la tecnología. Quizá incluso más que en otro sitio que conozco: la rebotica aragonesa de Valencia. Comento el primer libro que llamó la atención en mi nuevo despacho. Se trata de un librillo editado en 1990 por el "Comiato Nazionale per le Celebrazioni del V Centenario della scoperta dell'America". Una de las cosas que llama la atención de muchos españoles cuando pasean por los USA es que la inmensa comunidad ítalo-americana se considera a sí misma la heredera del hecho del "d...