Così fan tutte

Tupac Resurrection

... and the Oscar goes to ...

Dream Theater – Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a Memory

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 30th Anniversary DeLuxe Edition w/DVD

This is a celebration for music fans. The best CD by Elton John, even better. One of the best albums of all times and among my Top 20 favorite albums of all time. The album hit #1 in the Billboard Pop List in 1973. This is the Deluxe edition on SACD Surround Sound. The remaster of the audio is outstanding and will blow you away! This edition comes with a DVD (The Making of GYBR) that lasts about 50 minutes. This is the film that was previously published on DVD in the collection Classic Albums. If you already have this DVD, you can buy the CD SACD separately for $29,00. If you don't, I strongly recommend you to get the "whole package." The film tells the inside story of the making of this classic album with archive footage and interviews from Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Davey Johnstone, Nigel Olsson, Gus Dudgeon (producer of the original album), etc. The documentary has many terrific moments. To me, the best one is when Elton John is singing Candle in the Wind in honor of the Princess Diana. GYBR was released as a double album. CD1 contains the first 8 songs of LP1. CD2 contains the other 9, plus 4 bonus tracks, one of them Candle in the Wind acoustic, previously unreleased. The packaging is gorgeous with a booklet that contains a presentation by John Tobler, the original art work with lyrics, and some drafts of some lyrics. I had the original album on CD already, but went ahead and bought this edition and I am completely and absolutely satisfied. No regrets! The only problem is that this is expensive. But honestly, I am a collector and I appreciate the record company for releasing this so beautifully. If we don't buy this gems, record companies will stop doing this and then we'll go back to the complaints that the music industry sucks today. This is how CD's should be. Great music, great lyrics, great art work, packaging and sound! This is a MUST for any collector. 5 Stars, 10 over 10!

Modern Times

Modern Times is among the Best 100 American movies of all time (#81), and it is among the Best 1000 Movies on DVD by Peter Travers. I rate this movie 5 stars or 9 over 10. This movie is timeless, a masterpiece, a pleasure to watch and watch over and over again. It was the last silent movie Chaplin did and the last to feature the Little Tramp (beautiful ending with the two lovers walking arm and arm into a sunset.) The theme of the movie is how technology alienates the human being. Accidentally converted into a working class hero, Chaplin spends some time in jail, where he'd like to stay forever. There we watch one of the funniest scenes of the movie, the lunch with some "white powder". I couldn't stop laughing! In the times of the Great Depression, Chaplin portraits the unemployed and the hunger. Trying to find a steady job, he ends up in a Caffe where he waits on tables and sings. Yes! He does. The nonsense song (with Chaplin original voice in there) stands as one of the best moments in movie history. I can't quit this song off of my mind ... Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, appears here in what's considered her best and liveliest leading lady. This DVD is beautifully repackaged for the Chaplin Collection (a wonderful collection, thanks Warner!) It includes an all-new digital transfer and a soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as original mono. The second DVD comes full loaded with many speacial features, like a documentary about "Chaplin today", deleted scenes, an introduction by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, a Karaoke of the nonsense song, the wonderful song Smile, sung by Liberace, a Behind the Scenes in the Machine Age 42 minutes documentary, and lots of more extras!
I recommend this DVD to everybody, you will not be disapointed, and I would say it's a MUST for movie collectors. A classic, a masterpiece, a timeless movie!

49th GRAMMY Awards. Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA

The Dixie Chicks, the winners of the night, with 5 Awards: Best Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and other two.
Mary J. Blige,
Shakira,
Corinne Bailey Rae,
Sting (The Police reunited),
Prince,
John Mayer,
John Legend,
Beyoncé.
A night to remember. Among many great momments, I pick this one last picture: Christina Aguilera singing James Brown's It's a Man's World.

Riding in Cars with Boys

Mr. Leonard Donofrio: You were special. Now you ruined your life, and you broke my heart!

Visca l'Oleguer! Boicot a Kelme ...

La llibertat d'expressió és un dret universal fonamental. Visca la llibertat!


per Oleguer Presas
DIMECRES, 07/02/2007 - 06:00h
La bona fe
De Juana Chaos ha passat els últims vint anys a la presó. Reduïda pels beneficis penitenciaris que preveia la legislació anterior, s’havia computat i establert una condemna de divuit anys pels crims que va cometre. Tot i així, continua en presó preventiva, pendent de la resolució definitiva del procediment obert pel contingut de dos articles publicats al diari Gara. L’Audiència Nacional espanyola considera que, amb aquests articles d’opinió, De Juana Chaos ha comès delictes d’amenaces terroristes i l’ha condemnat a dotze anys i mig més de presó. Com a protesta per aquesta decisió, De Juana Chaos ha optat per fer vaga de fam fins a les últimes conseqüències.

L’estat de dret (com tantes vegades ens repeteixen com si fos una campanya publicitària) no preveu la pena de mort ni la cadena perpètua. De la mateixa manera continua prohibint l’eutanàsia. Em guiaré per la bona fe i suposaré que l’estat de dret no ha deixat de confiar en les seves lleis i continua no volent aplicar la cadena perpètua o la pena de mort. Guiat per la mateixa bona fe, consideraré que els motius polítics no fan que l’eutanàsia sigui legal. Suposaré, també mogut per la bona fe, que el contingut dels articles que ha publicat De Juana Chaos és prou explícit i clar per a mantenir a la presó una persona en risc de morir. M’agradaria pensar que, a l’estat de dret, hi ha llibertat d’expressió i que, en aquest cas, així com el d’Egunkaria o el de l’actor Pepe Rubianes per esmentar-ne alguns, hi ha indicis suficients per a processar els responsables (en cas contrari, tothom ja hauria aixecat el crit al cel, com és costum, quan hi ha episodis de falta de llibertat d’expressió lluny d’aquestes contrades, posem per cas al Marroc, a Cuba o a Turquia). La bona fe m'impulsa a pensar que a l'estat de dret la justícia és igual per a tothom, que no hi influeixen les pressions polítiques i que realment hi ha independència judicial; que les declaracions del ministre de Justícia, López Aguilar, en què afirmava: 'el Gobierno construirà nuevas imputaciones para evitar dichas excarcelaciones', referint-se al cas de De Juana Chaos, no han influït la sentència judicial.

Algú deia: Fets, no paraules. Doncs en David Fernàndez, al seu llibre 'Cròniques del 6 i altres retalls de la claveguera policial', ens informa dels fets següents: l’ex-general de la guàrdia civil i membre destacat dels horrors d’Intxaurrondo, Enrique Rodríguez Galindo, fou condemnat a setanta-cinc anys de presó per l’assassinat de Lasa i Zabala i tan sols en va complir poc més de quatre perquè al·legava problemes de salut. Julen Elorriaga també va ser excarcerat per motius de salut; condemnat a gairebé vuitanta anys de presó pels mateixos fets només ha complert un 3% de la condemna. De la Rosa, després d’estafar tot Espanya, gràcies a una depressió pot gaudir d’un generós règim de tercer grau. Rafael Vera, després de ser condemnat a deu anys de presó pel segrest de Segundo Marey, reivindicat pels GAL, només va passar vuit mesos reclòs per aquella causa... En David, al seu llibre, parla bàsicament de tortures i torturadors, de com la justícia mostra diferents graus de severitat segons l’acusat, de com funciona la maquinària informativa per criminalitzar determinades dissidències, de com la policia crea les proves necessàries per a imputar algú quan interessa políticament, com el govern no vol escoltar els informes del Relator Especial per la Qüestió de la Tortura de les Nacions Unides o d’organismes com Amnistia Internacional, que asseguren que en aquest estat de dret es tortura.

Però també resulta, ara, que la fiscalia de l’Audiència Nacional demana l’arxiu del cas Egunkaria: no hi ha proves. Resulta que el novembre del 2004 el Tribunal d’Estrasburg condemna l’estat espanyol per 'no haver investigat' les tortures denunciades, dotze anys abans, per disset independentistes catalans; calia fer callar les veus discordants durant els Jocs Olímpics. Resulta també que, el novembre del 2005, Zapatero indulta quatre policies locals de Vigo, inhabilitats i condemnats en ferm a dos i quatre anys de presó per haver apallissat, insultat i vexat el ciutadà senegalès Mamadou Kane. I resulta que Aznar havia fet igual el desembre del 2000: catorze agents condemnats per tortures (un d'aquests reincident), indultats.

I resulta que... Estic fet un embolic. Massa sovint aquest estat de dret té parts fosques que em fan dubtar. Tot això fa pudor d'hipocresia. I tanta hipocresia fa que se t'esgoti la bona fe.

Heart of Darkness

Life is short. Read the great books first!!!
“The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it. A taint of imbecile rapacity blew through it all, like a whiff from some corpse. By Jove! I’ve never seen anything so unreal in my life. And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away of this fantastic invasion.”

“In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals. They, no doubt, like the rest of us, found what they deserved. I did not inquire.”

“It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—the suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend. And why not?”

“The brown current ran swiftly out of the heart of darkness, bearing us down towards the sea with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too, ebbing, ebbing out of his heart into the sea of inexorable time. . . . I saw the time approaching when I would be left alone of the party of ‘unsound method.’”

“I was within a hair’s-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it. . . . He had summed up—he had judged. ‘The horror!’ He was a remarkable man.”

Things Fall Apart