QUERER SER RACIONAL ME ESTA SALIENDO CARO

Querer ser racional me está saliendo caro. Pierdo amistades y alguna gente me evita. No me duele pero lo confirmo. Generalmente rechazo lo tradicional y nacionalista que no tiene un fundamento vigente. Porqué preguntas esas cosas! Me dicen demasiado a menudo. Una pregunta típica de Miguel! Oigo de rato en rato sin mucho agrado. Créo que podría haber sido un buen inquisidor pero que también, tarde o temprano, me habrían atado a una hoguera.
Con los antroposofos de mi trabajo, con la testigo de Jehová de mi mamá, con gente que crée en la política, con cristianos y musulmanes, con la gente que me invita a ver el futbol o el festival de Eurovisión o a bailar salsa (tres cosas que mo me gustan), con la gente a la que le pregunto por la razón de la navidad. Algunas cosas las rechazo con orgullo. Otras simplemente no tienen ninguna implicación ética.
Acupuntura tailandesa (que no usa aguja sino unos palitos), la tradición sueca de celebrar la Anunciación de María comiendo waflers (Si creen que la tradición es ridícula la explicación lo es más) o el corazón como origen de los sentimientos son los tres botones de muestra de esta semana. Tres discuciones inutiles en las que me véo envuelto. Y mi pecado no es mi razonamiento, sinó el mero hecho de atreverme a mencionarlo con signo de interrogación y curiosidad. Como si cualquier pavada que dice la gente fuera un dogma de fé. Para mí el problema no es que la gente créa en estupideces, que acaso sea inherente a la especie humana. Para mi el problema es que nadie quiere compartir conmigo el proceso mental por el que llegan a sus tontas conclusiones. Y eso es lo que me interesa finalmente, porque así me será más fácil no cometer esos errores u otros similares. Más que saber como El Señor de los Milagros sea milagroso o no, me interesa ver el recibo de que la información pasó por el cerebro luego de ser una cosa inculcada por la tradición. La cosa es que la mayoría de la gente no es egoista o quiera mantenerme fuera de esa "élite del Secreto". La cosa es que la gente, mucha gente, no se interesa en saber que es lo que crée y lo achaca a la tradición o al conocimiento esotérico. Prefieren decir que son esto o lo otro que cuestionárselo.

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, BABY!

I was like seven or eight the first time i heard of the guy from Hoboken. Was when making his second comeback with the O'l Blue Eyes is Back special in 1973, that my family gathered around the box. "He's old!" my mother said, as if she was talking about some old neighbour coming back to town after a long trip. I didn't know from were they knew him. How little i knew...

My father use to hear a station called Stereo Lima 100 when driving me to school and there Frankie was heard quite often. There i understood why they treat him in such a familiar way. Why did they like him so much. Later i realiced he was an actor as well (at seven, watching The Pride and Passion I only could recognice Sophia Loren, not even Cary Grant!) and I Remember been very impressed by his acting skills in The Man With the Golden Arm (the same movie that made me fall in love with Kim Novak) and later, when i was a teen, with From Here to Eternity and not so many years ago with The Manchurian Candidate (actually one of my favorite movies of all time). But of course is the man and his music, with his almost dangerous but suave style, his macho on tuxedo attitude, his Rat-Pack Las Vegas nights during that now mythical fifties-sixties period, the man that nicknamed President Kennedy "Chicky Baby", the man that when Scorsese asked the guys from The Band about gruppies they happily answered that they "got more pussy then Sinatra"(which means Alotta, but Alotta Vagina), the man that dated every single Hollywood Goddess i could only dream about. And who knows if there was a second reason why Marilyn went everywhere with her Sinatra records collection. Well, let's face it, i wish, for a day or so, i was in that alternate universe where Frank Albert plays Don Vito Corleone or Harry Callahan (is the same universe where Lon Chaney plays The Monster in Frankenstein. Not a better, but an alternate one).

When i mention him in a conversation and everybody says sure yes "New York, New York and Strangers in the Night" (nobody does not know who he is) too many people tells me he was a bastard but i never could care less not because he wasn't sometimes (as the next guy can be)but because they are just like parrots repeating the only thing they've heard.
It's almost weird to hear that he died in 1998, so many years ago because he is more alive then most of the singers that are still trying to make a living on Earth.

I found very gratefull of him naming composers and every single guy that made the arragements (Cole Porter, Johhny Mercer, Neal Hefti, Billy May, Jimmy Webb,Don Costa, Nelson Riddle, Quincy Jones) for his tunes time after time, all the time. I like him when he makes fun of his early film carrier (Higher and Higher, anyone?) or when in the middle 60's he
is pretending or trying to understand the new young culture or the triumph of civil rights.
For some reason i prefer to hear him in old vinyl records then on shinny CDs or MP3, somehow it suits him better. But now that i got this 10 DVDs collection of his shows and I'm enjoying every single minute of it i can't complain (and i am on the 7th disc right now).
Have to mention a couple of his films before i finish this entry because they made me feel happy everytime i watch them and there's been times i've been selfprescribing their view to chin up myself. Guys and Dolls and specially 1956, High Society (with Grace Kelly, Crosby and Satchmo).

And finally, I wanna confess here that i never ever drink alone at home in my life. The exceptions to the rule being the times i watch one of these shows. Gotta have at least one sip of something. Blame The Voice, not the booze.

MORE ANITA AMORE!

Some anonymous guelylander requested me for more pics of Anita darling. So, just because you asked the right man for such a task, I just came back from remote cyberjungles with a chest of treasures and without even taking off my fedora i proceed to spread her beauty once more. Now if you still keep asking for more Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (A.K.A. "The Iceberg") I gonna start with her LATEST pictures. And, trust me, you don't want me to do that. So take some good old lounge music LP, open some vintage chilly bublely bubble, sit down and adopting some cool Rat Pack attitude, enjoy again the beauty of Miss Ekberg, here in Guelyland...

As Zero Mostel said in The Producers, "I love Sweden!"

CHARLTON HESTON (1923-2008)

Many people hate him because of his opinions. Many people, and I, like him because of his movies. Since i was like five (the first time i watched The Naked Jungle A.K.A. MARABUNTA! (1954) I am his fan. So here my homage to the great late Chuck "Stoneface" Heston:


My first Heston movie, a late night long time ago in a far, far away country...

With Gregory Peck as James McKay and Carroll Baker as Patricia Terrill in a scene from The Big Country, my most beloved western of them all. And one of the best soundtracks ever, by Jerome Moross.

Here's a little scene:

James McKay: If it's a fight you want, you've picked the right time for it, haven't you?

Steve Leech: Yeah, I'm offering you a fight. Or ain't that a nice word back east?

James McKay: You're gambling, Leech. You're gambling that if we fight, you can beat me. And you're gambling that if you beat me, Ms. Terrill will admire you for it.

Steve Leech: Out here, we leave a lady's name out of an argument.

(I hope someday I'll say this one somebody. By the way, this was a fist fight not a "gunned" one)

The tough but loyal Steve Leech from the same William Wyler,1958 masterpiece.

A "Semana Santa" classic. As Miguel Angel in La Agonía y el Extasis "Cuándo lo terminarás?(The Pope Rex Harrison kept asking him) Cuando lo termine! (his usual answer)" My mother always quoted him , when she used to take too much time on something (hence the "spanish mix")

An Epic Man if there ever was one. Mr. Heston as Major Dundee.


This one i'm sure doesn't need a presentation.


Remember my father taking me on my 10th birthday from the school to watch this great one.

A studio still as Judah Ben-Hur. No movie has won more Academy Awards then this one.

This pic is worth a click. It gets bigger then life.

Another classic that my father took me to see re-released at the movies when i was a kid.

And this one on it's premiere during the seventies, when he was the "Lord of Sensorround"!

With eeerh..., Julio Iglesias!!


My second favorite movie from all time Planet of The Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968). Chuck as Colonel Taylor with Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius and my dreamgirl since i was fourteen Linda Harrison as Nova.

"FROM MY DEAD COLD HANDS!" Stupid, but brave!

By the way a quote from Planet of The Apes:

Cornelius: Well Taylor, we're all fugitives now.

George Taylor: Do you have any weapons, any guns?

Cornelius: The best, but we won't need them.

George Taylor: I'm glad to hear it. I want one anyway.

Right! Heston wasn't playing Cornelius...

Here he was "The Omega Man" fighting albino vampires, so i guess the use of firearms was justified.

With the great Orson in Touch of Evil. The "last" great B movie (1958). Playing a mexican polis called Miguel Vargas.

As Indiana Jones "Grandpa" Harry Stelle in Cuzco. Secret of the Incas from 1954. When is the "Damned Dirty" DVD coming??

" I marched for civil rights with Dr. [Martin Luther King] in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh."(Chuck in 1999)

With Poitier and Belafonte...

With Brando and Baldwin, fighting for human rights.

"My Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fans: My physicians have recently told me I may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease. So . . . I wanted to prepare a few words for you now, because when the time comes, I may not be able to. I've lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I've found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor there's no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway. I'm neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I'm still the fighter that Dr. [Martin Luther King] and [John F. Kennedy] and Ronald Reagan knew, but it's a fight I must someday call a draw. I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure. Please feel no sympathy for me. I don't. I just may be a little less accessible to you, despite my wishes. I also want you to know that I'm grateful beyond measure. My life has been blessed with good fortune. I'm grateful that I was born in America, that cradle of freedom and opportunity, where a kid from the Michigan Northwoods can work hard and make something of his life. I'm grateful for the gift of the greatest words ever written, that let me share with you the infinite scope of the human experience. As an actor, I'm thankful that I've lived not one life, but many. Above all, I'm proud of my family ... my wife Lydia, the queen of my heart, my children, Fraser and Holly, and my beloved grandchildren, Jack, Ridley and Charlie. They're my biggest fans, my toughest critics and my proudest achievement. Through them, I can touch immortality. Finally, I'm confident about the future of America. I believe in you. I know that the future of our country, our culture and our children is in good hands. I know you will continue to meet adversity with strength and resilience, as our ancestors did, and come through with flying colors - the ones on Old Glory. William Shakespeare, at the end of his career, wrote his farewell through the words of Prospero, in "The Tempest". It ends like this: "Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-cap'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep". Thank you, and God bless you, everyone."

(Chuck, 9 August 2002)